Cell phone registration launched

Cell phone registration launched

Anissa S. Febrina and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Attention all prepaid cellular card users. Grab your cell phone,
type "daftar" (register) and send to 4444. Do it before April 28
next year or risk losing your number.

Starting on Thursday, those using prepaid cellular phone
numbers are to eventually contact the number and send their
personal data as required by a ministerial ruling.

The Ministry of Communications and Information, assisted by
all cellular operators, launched a public campaign to mark the
start of the registration process.

"Spare the time to register and look at it as being a good
citizen," said the ministry's director general for post and
telecommunications, Basuki Yusuf Iskandar. "We want to build a
more responsible and productive utilization of communication
technology."

The ministry requires cellular phone operators to identify
their prepaid card users nationwide and register them in response
to increasing cases of fraud and provocation through cellular
phone as well as undetected terrorist communications.

"There are too many crimes and acts of terror that use prepaid
cards," Minister Sofyan Djalil announced separately after
attending a ceremony at the vice presidential palace.

"No one knows the identity of million of users as there is no
data on them. What can the police do should one of them be
involved in criminal activity through their cell phone?" he said.

In the ruling, which took effect on Nov. 1, the ministry made
it compulsory for cellular operators to compile names, addresses
and birth dates of their subscribers, backed up by copies of
identity cards, passports, driver's licenses or student cards.

However, the validation process to follow the registration is
still under discussion with all cellular service providers, the
directorate general's public relations head Gatot S. Dewa Broto
said.

"We are discussing possibilities of cooperating with PT Pos
Indonesia and courier companies on how subscribers can best send
hard copies of their IDs for validation," he said.

There are more than 40 million cellular phone subscribers, of
which over 90 percent are prepaid phone users.

Operators said they had systems that had been previously used
to register prepaid subscribers voluntarily with certain
incentives.

"We are only maximizing the system, thus invested basically
nothing for this process," said Johnny Suwandi Sjam,
representative of Cellular Operator Association -- comprising
Telkomsel, Indosat, Excelcomindo, Telkom's Flexi, Mobile-8's Fren
and Bakrie's Esia.

So far, most cellular operators have only registered up to 25
percent of their prepaid subscribers.

The operators, supported by the government, will set aside at
least Rp 270 million (US$27,550) for a public campaign on the
registration process.

Registration process through free SMS

1. Type "daftar" and send to 4444

2. Each cellular operator will reply with different mechanisms
but basically requiring subscribers to send:

- name

- address

- ID card, driver's license, passport or student card number

- place and date of birth

3. If all data is complete, operators will reply confirming the
end of the registration process

4. Validation process might require subscribers to send hard copy
of their ID card, driver's license, passport or student card but
mechanism is still under discussion

5. Deadline for registration is April 28, 2006