Rhea Liu
China’s two biggest state-owned carriers China Telecom and China Mobile have begun to suspend users who haven’t registered personal information with local partners.
Users whose numbers are suspended will have limited usage with calls and texts able to be received but not able to be initiated. After proper registration, suspended numbers will be restored.
It’s reported that in Foshan, Guangdong, alone, the two carriers have each suspended about 68,000 and 200,000 users. Information pertinent to the suspended numbers has been transferred to local police for record keeping. According to the carriers, the numbers suspended also include numbers used by criminal suspects and senders of unsolicited messages.
Photo from PConline.com
China Telecom Foshan has said users who haven’t registered their real names or who have registered with inadequate information will be notified again before their numbers are suspended.
Real-name registration for mobile phones came into effect in China on September 1st. From September 1st, users purchasing cellphone numbers have needed to produce identity documents at the date of purchase. Users who acquired numbers before September 1st will need to submit their personal particulars to local partners to ensure regular usage.
According to China Youth Journal, over 400,000 cases of fraud were committed in 2014 using cellphone networks, with scam totals reaching RMB 10.7 billion (USD 1.7 billion). Few cases tend to get resolved due to the difficulty of identifying users. As of this date phone numbers can still be purchased from local stores without real-name registration, People’s Daily reports.
Real-name verification for package deliveries is now also implemented in China as of November 1st.
(Featured image from Sina.com)
