Mobile phone operators will be given to the end of the month to start implementing a mandatory system regulating customers buying SIM cards (chips), the National Communication Authority has revealed. 

The NCA's new obligation calls for a mandatory identification of all buyers of pre-paid chips from October. At least, one major mobile phone operator has welcomed it.

This will bring Ghana in line with a growing number of countries, where denying pay-as-you-go mobile phone users ownership anonymity is considered as crucial to the fight against terrorism and drugs.

Mobile phones have quickly replaced the street-corner payphone as the chosen method of those seeking anonymity in their communications, be they obscene callers, stalkers, prank callers or hardened criminals.

With the new regulation, before a pre-paid mobile phone chip (GSM or CDMA) can be activated, customers will have to provide details of a name, home address, and other telephone numbers as well as show identification as evidence to the seller, the Public Relations Manager of NCA, Afua Cobbah told The Statesman.

Existing customers may have to re-register with the phone operator, she said, adding "we want to have a complete database to be able to monitor the industry and track anonymous calls and text messages if complaints of anonymous abuse are made.”

She said although operators will be given until the end of October to start the process, it would be quite some time before all pre-paid mobile customers can be registered, “we should give Ghana a whole year to register”.

She explained that communication with operators, holding forums and meeting the press would help to publicise the need for customers to register, “people will come to understand that the change will benefit and protect them”.

Under the new system, both the SIM card and the user's phone will be regulated so that if a customer wants to use the chip in a different phone, an operator has to allow this change for the SIM to continue working. "In this way we are indirectly tackling the problem of stolen mobile phones as well," Ms Cobbah said.

MTN and some other operators have already encouraged customers to register their details when buying a SIM card but until now the regulation has been optional. "Hopefully things will change as operators take the lead to implement mandatory registration", Ms. Cobbah said.

The Chief Technical Officer of Kasapa, Michael Awuah, told The Statesman "it is a good thing and it is in the interest of the public, the Managing Director supports the compulsory system too", adding "anonymous text messaging is what we want to discourage and soon it will be possible to track these numbers".

Kasapa already register contact details of customers when phones and SIM cards are bought in their official shops, but Mr Awuah explained details are sometimes not received by other dealers selling the phone chips, adding "to implement the new system will not be very easy because we need a different type of technology for the database".

Kasapa already offer the safeguarding technology to stop stolen phones being used but the new measures will further improve the service, "it will stop people from breaking car windows or harming people to steal expensive phones", Mr. Awuah said.

The system is similar to one used in the UK to pin down a customer to one particular network but in Ghana it will mean operators can track down phone calls and text messages to an exact location..

The system implementation is at a stage that the NCA believe they can handle the changes, but she explained if every person in Ghana is expected to register personal details when activating a SIM card, a private bill of Parliament could play a role in the future.

It is hoped that mandatory registering of customer details to activate SIM cards will help tackle the widespread phenomenon of damaging, abusive, obscene or threatening text messages received from anonymous phone numbers, by making SIM cards less disposable.

The latest local victim was the Inspector General of Police, Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, who has been receiving death threats and defamatory material through text messages.

Globally, there is a growing concern among law enforcement and national security organisations about the use of anonymous prepaid mobile phone service and its apparent role in aiding criminal and terrorist activities.

The fast growth of the mobile phone market has prompted easy accessibility to phone cards, the previously unregulated system has allowed chips to be simply bought and disposed of quickly and anonymously without any means of accountability for the user’s actions.

Disposable pre-paid SIM cards and abuse of freedom to information of databases of contact details of top officials and high powered personnel has resulted in a market for free sources, free abuse and free defamation over the last few years.

Ms Cobbah said that Malaysia’s recently implemented system of industry regulation would be a good example for Ghana to follow.