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