Phone IDs

As of Sept 1, the Chinese subscriber is required to show his or her ID when purchasing a mobile phone number. Those who did not register before that date should also do so within three years.

The introduction of real-name registration for the largest group of cell phone users in the world is supposed to better protect their personal information.

China had more than 800 million cell phone users by the end of June 2010, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) show. Nearly 40 percent of them got pre-paid cards and did not have to show their ID at purchases. Yet their cell phones are bombarded with tons of spam text messages because their phone numbers are revealed.