Australia Considering Mandatory PrePay Registration

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has commenced a review of the way in which telephone companies collect identity information about their pre-paid mobile phone customers. As part of the review, ACMA has released a discussion paper, Identity Checks for Pre-paid Mobile Services. The paper notes that the review is occurring because the data being produced by current processes is of insufficient quality and consistency. The paper also outlines potential changes to the identity checking process to reduce industry costs and provide a simpler process for consumers.

Possible changes include removing the identity checking process from retail outlets such as supermarkets and petrol stations and requiring the mobile phone companies to collect and verify identifying information at the time the pre-paid mobile service is activated.

"Collection of accurate information about customers of pre-paid mobile telephones is likely to become increasingly important,' said Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman. 'The information is used to populate the Integrated Public Number Database (IPND), an industry wide database of all listed and unlisted public telephone numbers. It can help emergency service organisations respond quickly to time-critical emergencies and also identify people who make hoax calls to the emergency services. The identifying information can also be used to prosecute people who make life-threatening calls and assist law enforcement and national security agencies in their investigations of serious crime."

Posted to the site on 9th March 2006