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