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Real-name cell phone subscription to begin in 2006
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-12-28 09:11
The long-debated real-name subscription of mobile phone users will start in
2006, said the Minister of Information Industry Wang Xudong here on Tuesday.
About 200 million users of prepaid cell phones will be required to register
their real names.
Among the 388 million cell phone users in China, only those who pay
afterwards are asked to register their ID information upon subscription, while
those who pay in advance have no personal information registered at all.
Real-name cell phone subscription has stirred controversy from the day it was
proposed.
Telecom operators feel it will be inconvenient to collect their users'
information and subscribers feel their privacy will be threatened.
"It will be quite difficult for operators to convince their prepaid users to
register their names," commented Chen Jinqiao, head of the policy research
division with the Telecommunications Academy under the Ministry of Information
Industry (MII).
Wang, the minister, has made it clear that the new policy is part of the
efforts to combat cell phone-related crimes and the rampant spread of junk text
messages in the country.
Sources with the MII said that over 10,000 cell phones have been shut down
this year for spreading illegal messages with fraudulent, harassing, or erotic
text.
The ministry researched the real-name subscription system and did a pilot
experiment in Shanghai two years ago.
However, policy making was delayed for the fear that it would slow down the
growth of mobile phone users.
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