ID required for mobile phone users starting Wednesday
- Source: Global Times
- [02:34 September 01 2010]
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By Zhu Shanshan
Telecommunication authorities are requiring millions of mobile phone users in China to register with their real names when subscribing to services starting Wednesday, in an attempt to increase monitoring and crack down cell phone-based crimes.
But the move has raised concerns over security of personal data, and it is feared the new regulations will complicate the subscription process.
Ji Jinkui, a senior official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), confirmed to the Global Times Tuesday that all three telecommunication service providers - China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom - are required to start real-name registration for their new users beginning today. A specific plan for existing users is under discussion and is expected to take effect soon, Ji added.
Existing mobile phone users will be asked to register their real names with identity cards before 2013, or their numbers might be suspended, Chen Jinqiao, with the telecommunication economic expert committee at MIIT, told the Global Times Tuesday.
Prepaid SIM card buyers will also be asked to produce identity cards when making a purchase.
Foreign users who want to have a mobile number in China should provide their passports when purchasing SIM cards, according to the telecommunication service providers.
"With an increasing number of mobile phone users, there is an urgent need to crack down on crime-ridden misuses in the telecommunication industry in China," Chen said, adding that Chinese mobile phone users receive eight spam messages a day, on average.
China has some 800 million mobile phone users, and 40 percent, or about 320 million, of them are unregistered users who bought their SIM cards without showing their identity cards.
To fulfill the real-name registration program nationwide, Chen advised telecommunication service providers to carry out convenient and preferential measures later to encourage existing customers to register with their IDs.
However, concerns have been raised over the efficiency of the real-name registration plan.
Sales of pre-paid SIM cards, whose holders were not asked to register, have seen a boost in sales this past week, before the implementation of the real-name policy.
A newsstand owner on Zhenzhi Road in Chaoyang District in Beijing, told the Global Times that the number of SIM cards he sold recently doubled, as some customers bought a few numbers at one time due to the registration policy.
