Malaysia to list mobile prepaid users

Malaysia to list mobile prepaid users

MALAYSIA: Mobile phone users in Malaysia with prepaid SIM cards must register with service providers by the end of the year in an effort to halt abusive calls and text messages, a news report said on Sunday.

"We have 16 million prepaid mobile phone users and 14 million of them are not registered," Communications Minister Lim Keng Yaik was quoted as saying by the national news agency, Bernama.

On Wednesday, Malaysian police arrested two Indonesian men following a series of bomb-threat hoaxes spread by text message on the northern resort island of Penang.

The move by Malaysia's government follows similar measures by countries like Thailand, the Philippines and Taiwan. Thailand imposed registration after mobile phones were used as triggers for bombs in the country's volatile south. -- AP