Beijing spearheads real-name telecom campaign   

北京要率先实行手机实名制 正研究起草管理规定

为加强以移动电话为终端的网络活动的规范和网络社会的管理，北京很可能要在全国率先实行手机用户登记实名制——用户办理移动电话入网、过户、变更等业务时，需要与电信业务经营者签订协议，并进行真实身份登记；否则，运营商可以限制、暂停、终止服务。这是中新网记者从今天下午在京举行的有关座谈会上获悉的。

(Ecns.cn) -- Beijing will likely take the lead in adopting a system that requires all mobile phone users to give their real names, reporters learned at a conference held Sunday by the Publicity Department of the Beijing Municipal CPC Committee.

A regulation being drafted here will require users to sign contracts with their real names when they set up service, transfer service or change service types. Mobile telecom operators will have the right to restrict, suspend or terminate service if users do not comply.

Senior executives from China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom said at the conference that the number of registered mobile phone users in Beijing has surpassed 60 million, and that several millions of new users sign up each year. False messages, spam, rumors and fraud are common problems, they all agreed.

Wang Zhenmin, dean of the School of Law at Tsinghua University, said the regulation will hopefully protect the freedom and privacy of citizens during communication via mobile phones.

However, it is important to investigate which departments check the personal information of old users and how they go about it, said Li Yuan, a law professor at Renmin University of China.

China implemented a system requiring new mobile phone users to provide their real names when buying numbers on September 1, 2010, a move reportedly to combat spam and fraud.

The top legislature last Friday approved rules requiring Internet users to use real names to identify themselves when signing web access agreements.