Users must register cards s

 MOBILE phone SIM card registration will enable subscribers between this month and the end of 2014 to be registered with some form of identification, Papua New Guinea’s telecoms regulator National Information and Communications Technology Authority (NICTA) says.

Manager of NICTA’s licensing and business relations branch Gibson Tito said registrations should come into effect once the draft legislation was endorsed by the National Executive Council to enable subscribers’ identification.

The organisation released a public consultation document on the draft regulation for the registration of SIM cards in June to gauge views of key stakeholders and consumers and was now going through the government approval process to give it legal effect.

Tito said registration, once in effect, would allow subscribers, both existing and new cards between this month and the end of December next year, to be registered with valid photo identification.

Tito said the move by NICTA would assist authorities to identify the owner of a mobile phone. 

At present subscribers can only be identified by the number registered to the mobile company operators such as bmobile or Digicel PNG.

The changes could come under the provisions of a law covering improper use of ICT services.