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July, 05 2008 |  |
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Cell Phone Users Given More Time to Register |
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The goverment is extending the deadline for prepaid cellular phone registration after telecommunications operators complained their networks were overwhelmed by the millions of users trying to register.
Information and Communication Minister Sofyan A. Djalil said Wednesday that cellular phone users woould have two and a half months from next week to submit their personal information, which is required by a ministerial decree he issued in October last year.
"Between May 1 and May 15, there will be what we call a soft deactivation stage, in which sending short messages and receiving incoming calls will still be possible but all out-bound calls will be blocked," Sofyan told reporters during a break from a hearing on the Aceh governance bill.
He added that following the soft deactive stage, cellular phone users would have two months to register through SMS, e-mail, at call centers of individual operators or telecommunications stores throughout the country. The measures imposed during the deactivation stage will continue during the two-month period, Sofyan said. The telecommunications operators reported their networks were slowed as nervous users vied to register before the April 28 deadline.
The goverment had warned that cellular phone users who failed to register by April 28 would lose service. About 70 percent of 44 million prepaid phone users have complied with the requirment. The goverment decided to require registration - consisting of ID card number, name, date and place of birth and address of the user - to prevent cellular services from being used in criminal activities.
Cell phone have been widely used in scams, and police investigations also found terrorist groups used the anonymity of prepaid cellular services to build their networks and carry out attacks. Critics say the registration is ineffective because people can provide false information, but the ministry plans to establish cooperation with the national postal service to verify registrants information.
The ministry also has prepared a regulation that will require cellular operators to set up a system in which registration is made when users purchase new number. It will take effect by year's end.
