Mobile Phone Registration Act of 2007(?)

Well, well, well... it seems something happened during the last long Independence Day weekend. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is said to be issuing a draft circular compelling all cellphone importers to register their units with the said agency. This is not a big deal, the big deal is that existing cellphone users are also compelled to register their existing cellphones!

GMANews.tv reports that all cellphones are required to be registered to prevent "terrorism, theft, and robbery, text spams to protect the wider interest of the public". Now, the question is, if a cellphone is used to send a SMS Scam, how can it be traced to a particular cellphone unit?

Wouldn't it be more practical to have the SIM cards registered since it is easier to change SIM cards than to change cellphones? I think this is a boneheaded move by the NTC and they are solving a prevalent problem with the wrong solution... IT IS easier and more practical to register SIM cards -- regular telco subscribers already have their information with the telcos and tracing them is just an SQL query away. The problem here is that most dubious activities on the cellphones are done unsing PREPAID SIM cards and NTC must first move to register all Prepaid SIM card sales in order to curb "terrorism, theft, and robbery, text spams to protect the wider interest of the public".

I'm sure the NTC will have an earful from TXTPower and similar groups on this.