Indosat: Policy on Prepaid SIM Card Registration Cleans Database
10 May 2018 12:44 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Director of telecommunications services and network provider Indosat, Joy Wahjudi, considered the regulation on prepaid SIM card registration gives a positive impact either for the industry and the government.
“The policy, in my opinion, is a good measure, because it cleans our database,” said Joy in his office in Central Jakarta, Wednesday, May 9.
Joy admitted the progress took a long time and changed the business pattern to adjust to the regulation. In the adjustment process, Indosat also recorded financial loss. Since January 2018, he stated, Indosat did not further offer new SIM card solely for internet package that is registration-free.
Read: 6 Million Prepaid Mobile Numbers Register ID Number
The decision reduced the number of Indosat consumers to 96 million users in the first quarter of 2018, compared to 2017’s fourth quarter at 110 users. In addition, the operating revenue in Q1 of 2018 decreased to 22,9 percent or Rp5.7 billion from Rp7.3 in Q4 2017.
However, Joy expressed his optimism that the policy will not hamper his business work as he deemed there is no significant change in the Ministerial Decree of Communication and Informatics Ministry No. 21/2017.
Particularly since there is no limitation of the number to be registered by the provider or SIM card sellers. “But, register it properly. If one ID number used for registering thousand SIM cards, we’ll not be involved in the problem, but the police [will handle it],” he said.
According to the Ministerial Decree, despite there will be no limitation in registering prepaid SIM card using ID number and family card number, the operator is urged to report to the government should one ID is used for ten or more SIM card numbers once in every three months.
M YUSUF MANURUNG