Phone providers clueless over prepaid card registration

Phone providers clueless over prepaid card registration

Anissa S. Febrina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The issuance of a ministerial regulation requiring prepaid card
cell phone subscribers to register with cellular providers is
causing confusion among the companies.

Three major cellular providers -- PT Telkomsel, PT Indosat and
PT Excelcomindo Pratama -- acknowledged that they were still
assessing which measures would be feasible to implement and best
suit the interests of their customers and card vendors.

Indosat -- the second largest telecommunications company here
issuing prepaid card products of Mentari, Matrix and IM3 -- said
it was discussing the issue with card dealers, on whom the
company relies for distribution of its cards.

The firm's consumer market director Johnny Suwardi Sjam said
on Tuesday that the distribution line for prepaid cards involved
many layers and thus the company needed to assess many potential
problems.

"What we can do now is to encourage existing prepaid
subscribers to voluntarily register through our consumer loyalty
program," he said.

Since Oct. 14 -- the day when the Ministry of Communications
and Information's issued a ministerial regulation stipulating
that all cellular phone providers must identify their prepaid
card users nationwide -- Indosat has only been able to register
700,000 of its 12 million prepaid card users. The company is
confused about the date to implement manual and computerized
registration systems for new users.

The regulation requires cellular providers to compile names,
addresses and birth dates for all customers, which is to be
proven by copies of legal identification cards, passports,
driver's licenses or student cards.

The largest cellular provider, Telkomsel, was also in the
process of trying to decide how it would register all its
customers with its distributors and for the time being relies on
subscribers' voluntarily registrations.

At present, the firm has registered about 25 percent of its 22
million subscribers of its simPATI and Kartu AS prepaid cards.

Excelcomindo plans to register new prepaid card subscribers
during the activation period and require dealers to collect
copies of buyers' ID cards, said the firm's corporate
communications manager V. Elisawati.

"We are currently collecting ideas and exercising several
possible scenarios," she said. "In the case of current prepaid
users, we might use our call center or rely on text messaging to
get the data required."

Excelcomindo, with a 15.5 percent market share, says that 95
percent of its 6.3 million subscribers use prepaid products
Jempol and Bebas.

Today, prepaid cards for cellular phones are still sold
without the need for buyers to fill in a form or submit a copy of
their ID card. Prepaid cards are offered starting at Rp 20,000
(US$2).

The regulation is meant to be a deterrent to scams and
terrorism. The registration process must be completed by April
2006.

The compiled data of prepaid card buyers will be submitted by
the operators to the Attorney General's Office, the National
Police and the communications ministry.

In the long run, the minister's policy would be formulated as
a ministerial decree to prevent the abuse of telecommunications
services.