New scheme to screen out cellphone scam
People buying pre-paid mobile phones will have to register their personal details in a crackdown on text message spam and fraud.
After several weeks of rumours about the new scheme, the Minister of the Information Industry Wang Xudong confirmed that all China's cellphone subscribers will be required to follow a real-name scheme from this year.
According to the new scheme, people will have to register their phone numbers, including that of cellphones and smart phones, with their own ID cards. Foreigners who work in China can register with their passports.
Existing mobile phone users will also have to eventually register their details.
The new policy will be a provision of the draft regulation on text messaging and mobile communications, which is expected to be unveiled within the next six months, said Chen Jinqiao, a senior official with the Telecommunication Research Institute under the Ministry of Information Industry.
Chen, who actually leads the law formulation, told China Daily that the new regulations would not detail how the new scheme should be implemented.
"How to carry out the policy is all up to the telecoms operators, who shall rebuild their sales channels to adapt to it," he said.
Currently people in China can simply buy SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards, which are inserted in the cellphones, at both big stores and small grocer's on street corners. The SIM cards contain the telephone numbers.
Pre-paid users are not required to register their personal information, or even show their ID cards, before they buy the card with a phone number.
Statistics with the telecommunication research institute indicate that only 20 per cent of the 383 million mobile users in China had registered their identities by the end of last October. Out of the 200 million pre-paid subscribers, 30 per cent had registered their phones with false personal information.
"Anonymous purchase of SIM cards obstructs the police from tracing back the source of rampant illicit text messages, which always feature deceitful or irksome contents," said Chen.
"Increasing text message harassment and crimes are tarnishing the market and it is time to clean it, despite some costs."
Though there is no official number of "illegal" text messages, an online survey conducted by China Youth Daily and Sohu.com last December showed more than 70 per cent of mobile users had received "junk" messages.
The survey also revealed people were almost divided 50-50 over whether the new regulations were a good idea. Those against it raised concern at how operators could authenticate the registered information and secure no leak of people's personal details.
As for the three telecoms operators China Mobile, China Unicom and China Netcom which will have to bear the brunt of the real-name system, none wanted to comment before the official announcement of the policy.
Pros and cons
The new scheme has been debated by domestic media for more than a month, before Wang revealed some details at a regular national meeting last week.
Many objectors say that the mobile phone real-name system will result in a sharp decrease in the total income of the text message industry and bring inconvenience to phone users.
But many experts claim it will not affect the market much.
Cui Xiaolong, an expert at research house Analysys International, said the biggest challenge set by the proposed system lies in the reform of pre-paid card sale channels.
"The cost for reshaping the sales channel will obviously surge, though we cannot provide an exact figure," he said.
"Under the new scheme, telecoms operators must set up a network for SIM card sales to ensure the identity registration and authentication. In that way, only those big shops equipped with the network can sell the cards and feedback the information to operators."
In this sense, SIM card sellers in many small street shops may be barred from selling them, depriving them of what has become a major source of income.
A small shop owner near the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing said he could sell more than six cards a day, with an average profit of 3 yuan (38 US cents) for each one.
The city has countless such small shops, which import cards from wholesalers without any registration.
Cui also refuted the claim that operators will suffer a plummeting business thereafter. He said: "Mobile consumption has almost become a must, or a habit, for Chinese people. The market demand will stay high despite the policy."
Also, post-paid subscribers those with contract phones actually contribute major profits to the mobile market, he added. All of the country's post-paid users are already required to have their identity information registered with the phones.
Statistics from Analysys International show that 58 per cent of China Mobile's total income comes from post-paid mobile phone users, whose average revenue per unit (ARPU) of last year was 167, almost tripling that of pre-paid users.
APRU is an index used to measure the average monthly revenue generated for each customer unit, such as a cellphone or pager, which a carrier has in operation.
Cui also denied there would be a big impact on the smart phone market, saying that most of the current 86 million smart phone users are post-paid. He added text message exchanges between smart phones and mobile phones only began last year.
However, another opinion argues that it would not cost operators much to reform their sales channels. The real problem, however, would be the re-registration of existing pre-paid users.
Wang Yuquan, general manager with Frost & Sullivan Consulting's China branch, said a wireless terminal facility for ID registration costs between 2,000 and 3,000 yuan (US$250 - 375), which is "not a big deal" for operators.
"It is also not that difficult to connect them together with the public security's network for ID authentication," he said.
"But it is a huge project to inform every old user to re-sign up their phones."
Wang added whether people would have to show their ID cards again when topping up credit on their phones was still unknown.
According to Chen Jinqiao, the new policy will take effect first on new mobile phone subscribers and then include old users gradually.
"But it will not take too long to complete the entire registration, otherwise the policy is meaningless," Chen said.
Some parts of the country have already begun to try the new scheme, such as Shanghai.
The economic centre of China started the new measure last September, ruling that all new users of mobile phones must give their real names and copies of their identity cards.
But it has not proved a resounding success.
Figures from the Shanghai Communication Administrative Bureau (SCAB) said in the first two months after the rule was introduced, the city had about 775,000 new mobile phone users, but more than 120,000 did not provide their names as the rule requires.
"Does it mean I have to present my identity card to these vendors?" said Li Jun, a local white collar.
"What if they leak my information to others? There have been cases with people forging an ID card to get credit cards."
But even if he chose to show his ID card, many small shops do not even have a duplicating machine to copy it as the new rule requires.
Business insiders said the key problem is the small shops have actually become an important sales channel for mobile operators, which intend to reduce costs.
The situation is better with the formal outlets of mobile operators. A member of staff at Shanghai Mobile said they have installed machines in each of their main outlets to testify the authenticity of the ID cards.
A report from Daily Business News said last December that the city had cancelled the mobile phone service to 4,888 phone numbers in the past four months after the introduction of the new policy.
A timetable put forward by Shanghai Mobile, the city's biggest mobile operator, suggests the "faceless" problem with their mobile users will be completely solved within the next two years. It also planned to increase its own outlets to 100 by the end of this year and 200 in 2007 to gradually cut down the number of small shops.
Statistics with the Shanghai Public Security Bureau said it received more than 18,000 reports in November alone about illegal text messages, many of which were conmen using the cover of anonymity for scams ranging from lucky draws to obtaining credit card details.
Chen Jinqiao said: "It may cause inconvenience for buyers, but the benefit is also definite in terms of curbing crimes and helping refine the construction of China's credit system."
The mobile phone real-name system has already been carried out in many other Asian countries, including the Republic of Korea and Japan.
Thailand introduced a similar mobile phone real-name system last May to about 22 million subscribers. It took Thailand about six months to complete the reform.
Source: China Daily
After several weeks of rumours about the new scheme, the Minister of the Information Industry Wang Xudong confirmed that all China's cellphone subscribers will be required to follow a real-name scheme from this year.
According to the new scheme, people will have to register their phone numbers, including that of cellphones and smart phones, with their own ID cards. Foreigners who work in China can register with their passports.
Existing mobile phone users will also have to eventually register their details.
The new policy will be a provision of the draft regulation on text messaging and mobile communications, which is expected to be unveiled within the next six months, said Chen Jinqiao, a senior official with the Telecommunication Research Institute under the Ministry of Information Industry.
Chen, who actually leads the law formulation, told China Daily that the new regulations would not detail how the new scheme should be implemented.
"How to carry out the policy is all up to the telecoms operators, who shall rebuild their sales channels to adapt to it," he said.
Currently people in China can simply buy SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards, which are inserted in the cellphones, at both big stores and small grocer's on street corners. The SIM cards contain the telephone numbers.
Pre-paid users are not required to register their personal information, or even show their ID cards, before they buy the card with a phone number.
Statistics with the telecommunication research institute indicate that only 20 per cent of the 383 million mobile users in China had registered their identities by the end of last October. Out of the 200 million pre-paid subscribers, 30 per cent had registered their phones with false personal information.
"Anonymous purchase of SIM cards obstructs the police from tracing back the source of rampant illicit text messages, which always feature deceitful or irksome contents," said Chen.
"Increasing text message harassment and crimes are tarnishing the market and it is time to clean it, despite some costs."
Though there is no official number of "illegal" text messages, an online survey conducted by China Youth Daily and Sohu.com last December showed more than 70 per cent of mobile users had received "junk" messages.
The survey also revealed people were almost divided 50-50 over whether the new regulations were a good idea. Those against it raised concern at how operators could authenticate the registered information and secure no leak of people's personal details.
As for the three telecoms operators China Mobile, China Unicom and China Netcom which will have to bear the brunt of the real-name system, none wanted to comment before the official announcement of the policy.
Pros and cons
The new scheme has been debated by domestic media for more than a month, before Wang revealed some details at a regular national meeting last week.
Many objectors say that the mobile phone real-name system will result in a sharp decrease in the total income of the text message industry and bring inconvenience to phone users.
But many experts claim it will not affect the market much.
Cui Xiaolong, an expert at research house Analysys International, said the biggest challenge set by the proposed system lies in the reform of pre-paid card sale channels.
"The cost for reshaping the sales channel will obviously surge, though we cannot provide an exact figure," he said.
"Under the new scheme, telecoms operators must set up a network for SIM card sales to ensure the identity registration and authentication. In that way, only those big shops equipped with the network can sell the cards and feedback the information to operators."
In this sense, SIM card sellers in many small street shops may be barred from selling them, depriving them of what has become a major source of income.
A small shop owner near the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing said he could sell more than six cards a day, with an average profit of 3 yuan (38 US cents) for each one.
The city has countless such small shops, which import cards from wholesalers without any registration.
Cui also refuted the claim that operators will suffer a plummeting business thereafter. He said: "Mobile consumption has almost become a must, or a habit, for Chinese people. The market demand will stay high despite the policy."
Also, post-paid subscribers those with contract phones actually contribute major profits to the mobile market, he added. All of the country's post-paid users are already required to have their identity information registered with the phones.
Statistics from Analysys International show that 58 per cent of China Mobile's total income comes from post-paid mobile phone users, whose average revenue per unit (ARPU) of last year was 167, almost tripling that of pre-paid users.
APRU is an index used to measure the average monthly revenue generated for each customer unit, such as a cellphone or pager, which a carrier has in operation.
Cui also denied there would be a big impact on the smart phone market, saying that most of the current 86 million smart phone users are post-paid. He added text message exchanges between smart phones and mobile phones only began last year.
However, another opinion argues that it would not cost operators much to reform their sales channels. The real problem, however, would be the re-registration of existing pre-paid users.
Wang Yuquan, general manager with Frost & Sullivan Consulting's China branch, said a wireless terminal facility for ID registration costs between 2,000 and 3,000 yuan (US$250 - 375), which is "not a big deal" for operators.
"It is also not that difficult to connect them together with the public security's network for ID authentication," he said.
"But it is a huge project to inform every old user to re-sign up their phones."
Wang added whether people would have to show their ID cards again when topping up credit on their phones was still unknown.
According to Chen Jinqiao, the new policy will take effect first on new mobile phone subscribers and then include old users gradually.
"But it will not take too long to complete the entire registration, otherwise the policy is meaningless," Chen said.
Some parts of the country have already begun to try the new scheme, such as Shanghai.
The economic centre of China started the new measure last September, ruling that all new users of mobile phones must give their real names and copies of their identity cards.
But it has not proved a resounding success.
Figures from the Shanghai Communication Administrative Bureau (SCAB) said in the first two months after the rule was introduced, the city had about 775,000 new mobile phone users, but more than 120,000 did not provide their names as the rule requires.
"Does it mean I have to present my identity card to these vendors?" said Li Jun, a local white collar.
"What if they leak my information to others? There have been cases with people forging an ID card to get credit cards."
But even if he chose to show his ID card, many small shops do not even have a duplicating machine to copy it as the new rule requires.
Business insiders said the key problem is the small shops have actually become an important sales channel for mobile operators, which intend to reduce costs.
The situation is better with the formal outlets of mobile operators. A member of staff at Shanghai Mobile said they have installed machines in each of their main outlets to testify the authenticity of the ID cards.
A report from Daily Business News said last December that the city had cancelled the mobile phone service to 4,888 phone numbers in the past four months after the introduction of the new policy.
A timetable put forward by Shanghai Mobile, the city's biggest mobile operator, suggests the "faceless" problem with their mobile users will be completely solved within the next two years. It also planned to increase its own outlets to 100 by the end of this year and 200 in 2007 to gradually cut down the number of small shops.
Statistics with the Shanghai Public Security Bureau said it received more than 18,000 reports in November alone about illegal text messages, many of which were conmen using the cover of anonymity for scams ranging from lucky draws to obtaining credit card details.
Chen Jinqiao said: "It may cause inconvenience for buyers, but the benefit is also definite in terms of curbing crimes and helping refine the construction of China's credit system."
The mobile phone real-name system has already been carried out in many other Asian countries, including the Republic of Korea and Japan.
Thailand introduced a similar mobile phone real-name system last May to about 22 million subscribers. It took Thailand about six months to complete the reform.
Source: China Daily
posted by OlongapoCity Zambales at
9:07 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home