Law on pre-paid phones needed

Law on pre-paid phones needed

JAKARTA: A ministerial regulation that requires pre-paid
mobile phone users to register has drawn praise, but a lawmaker
deems it not enough.

A member of the House of Representatives' defense commission,
Effendi Simbolon, said the commission had suggested that the
government draft a law on the matter to provide a stronger legal
basis for mandatory registration.

"We have to gain the upper hand in the antiterrorism drive by
issuing various regulations to support the war on terror,"
Effendi said on Saturday.

The commission will hold a hearing with Minister of
Information and Communication Sofyan Djalil later this week to
discuss the ministerial regulation. Sofyan issued the regulation
on Oct. 28, almost one month after Bali fell prey for the second
time to terror attacks. Police said the bombs were detonated by
mobile phones.

There are an estimated 40 million users of pre-paid cellular card
phones across the country. Mobile phone service providers have
predicted the regulation would cause a decline in the growth of
pre-paid cards of between 10 percent and 15 percent. -- Antara