Malaysia Requires Prepaid Mobile Phone Users To Register
KUALA LUMPUR (AP)--Mobile phone users in Malaysia with prepaid SIM cards must register with their service providers by the end of this year to assist authorities in tracing people who abuse the service, a news report said Sunday.
The government had previously asked the country's three service providers to register such users but the request was not made mandatory.
"We have 16 million prepaid mobile phone users and 14 million of them are not registered," Communications Minister Lim Keng Yaik was quoted as saying by the national news agency, Bernama.
Lim acknowledged that the service providers faced a mammoth task in registering the 14 million people, who account for more than 80% of overall mobile phone users.
But he said the registration was mandatory as the government wished to check abusive calls and text messages.
Wednesday, Malaysian police arrested two Indonesian men following a series of bomb warning hoaxes spread by text message on the northern resort island of Penang. The messages warned of bombs planted at various locations, sending shoppers into a panic.
Malaysia's move follow similar measures by countries like Thailand, the Philippines and Taiwan. Thailand imposed registration beginning July 1 as a security measure after mobile phones were used as triggers for bombs in the country's south.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 14th August 2005
