Historically, back in 2006, the Malaysian Government has directed every Service Providers that provide prepaid mobile service to register its user in the country. The main reason for this directive at that time, was aimed at curbing misuses of the prepaid public cellular services and to address national security concerns including terrorism and crime behaviour.
Now, despite no changes to the main reasons of the directive by the Government, registration of SIM cards has provided the consumers with more value added services by the Service Providers such as Birthday treat, personal greetings and mobile money, which would not be possible without proper registration.
In fact, in the new edge of digital economy, mobile phone has become a significant importance in our daily life. Activities such as banking, shopping and traveling arrangements have shifted from traditional way to online transaction. Mobile has also become the key contributor to the financial inclusion agenda with Mobile Money services now available to 1.9 billion people in more than 90 countries.
Therefore, with the aim to empower the consumer in ensuring identification information provided during registration are valid and to ensure the integrity of data, MCMC has strengthened the Guidelines for Prepaid Registration on 1st June 2017, and will be fully enforced by 1st January 2018.
With proper registration, consumer experience using Mobile services with Service Providers will improve. Consumer will be able to choose and compare value-added / personalized services provided by their Service Providers.
However, all consumers are advice to be cautious in sharing personal information to avoid any unauthorized usage by a third party.
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