MCMC Plans To Cap Sim Card Ownership For Locals And Foreigners - Teo

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is conducting a public enquiry on guidelines for prepaid SIM card registration.

Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching said the key proposal is to limit Malaysian citizens to owning just two numbers per telecommunications (telco) provider.

She said the study also includes a proposal to limit foreign nationals to just two prepaid numbers in total, regardless of the telco provider. 

She said the public consultation is expected to conclude by the end of November, and the MCMC aims to enforce the new guidelines in the first quarter of next year.

“By tightening these guidelines, we hope to reduce the misuse of prepaid SIM cards, which are often used to register social media accounts for fraud, spreading false information, or making threats,” she said during the oral question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

According to Teo, under the existing guidelines set in 2017, an individual can register up to five prepaid numbers with each telco company.

“This means a person could have five numbers from Maxis, five from Celcom, five from Digi, five from U Mobile and five from YTL. This amounts to a rather large number of SIM cards for a single individual,” she explained.

She was responding to a supplementary question from Dr Mohammed Taufiq bin Johari (PH-Sungai Petani) regarding the government's proposal to draft a policy for the ethical use of AI and measures to strengthen digital forensic capabilities under the MCMC.

-- BERNAMA