China’s telecommunications regulator is set to require the country’s telecom service to verify and register users' ID when selling new phone cards starting Sept. 1, as announced on Friday, Aug. 7.
The Xinhua News Agency reported that the implementation was part of a regulation passed in 2013 that required identity verification when accessing telecom services, including fixed phones, cellphones and the Internet.
According to the report, a large number of unverified accounts, which included old clients who bought SIM cards before 2013, were not registered due to the negligent implementation of the policy. Currently, users continue to ignore the rule and buy SIM cards without ID in non-official channels, such as newspaper stands and phone stores.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also said on Friday that it will require all three telecom services companies to have ID card readers to verify and register new users' information starting next month, since only 600,000 card readers have been installed so far.
The report said that old and unverified accounts activated before the 2013 policy will also be verified when users apply for new service packages or change phone cards.
Unverified cards, known in China as "black cards," are widely used in illegal activities, such as text message scams.
China Mobile, China's top telecom operator, said in January that it still had nearly 130 million accounts, or 16 percent of its total accounts, unverified. The nation's three major operators--China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom--have all confirmed that they have unverified accounts.
The ministry asked the three companies to increase the ratio of verified accounts to 90 percent of the total by the end of this year.