Ananda and the Siamese Monk

I can't believe the govt now wants pre-paid SIMs to be registered. Its got to be one of the worst desicions of the year no doubt. Blow me hard. The blow me somemore. With this rather authoritative legislation, the govt through telco operators could eventually move to identify any registered subscriber when a call is made or SMS is sent anywhere in the country. This is all not possible at the moment as pre-paid services were designed to be a short term calling service thats cheap, nasty and easy to subscribe to.

That is probably why this service is was so appealing to the public, especially in a rather fragile subscription based economy where comidities and services have a shorter life cyle compared to in the US or europe. Its low price and uncomplicated provisioning methods make it a success in this country.

In a hasty move to regulate the all-this-while non-regulated but competitive telecoms industry, the govt has passed a recent law that requires pre-paid SIMs to be registered. This legislation is seen as a bold move to underscore the need to id and eventually prosecute unpatriotic calls or rumour-based SMSs', which are said to be the main causes of instability within governmental domains. The story was that some senior ministers were getting unsolicited SMS msgs complaining about their free bungalows and wild swinger AP parties. What pissed them off was that they couldn't get the cops to take any action on this for they had no idea where the SMSs were being sent from. Then on the weekends while some ministers were at their gf's seri ayu apartment, someone calls and shouts obscenities over the phone. And again these rich dudes could do nothing, except create a law that helps to protect them.

All is good for the govt, but what does this mean for normal subscribers? For one experts say this additional regulatory framework would need a new system and procedure put in place to manage this entire cycle, where operators would as they often do, would get the public to pay for the whole thing. Isn't increased petrol prices enough to stuff us average joes? Now you bring this down on us, just because you were paranoid about who sent you the laced SMS last nite? Get real. Live with it will you?

The level of regulatory enforcement here is expected to hinder and stump the burst of subscribers that fuel the expansion of the telecoms industry that out country had witness over the recent years. Uncle SAM, papa Joe, hishamudin Authorities can filter through calls and messages to id political opponents, hate messages or internal rumours. It all works nicely for them .... but is it good enough for us? You be the judge.