Hello, all, and welcome to the first entry in my blog covering the world of mobile communications. It’s a new service from Juniper from a new voice from the company and it’s something I’ll be looking to keep refreshed on an ad-hoc basis, probably at least twice a week, or more frequently if something crops up that I think is worth talking about. As is the case with all blogs, the opinions and comments expressed therein will be entirely my own, but they will chime - as far as possible - with Juniper’s views on the subjects being discussed.
As my area of expertise is geographic markets and regulation, I’m going to kick off this blog with my reaction to an item of news that broke over the weekend.
First up is a report in the Sunday Times newspaper that the UK government is looking to build a centralised database that would hold all of the personal and banking details of mobile phone owners by requiring operators to ask for all of this information before selling a new handset or SIM card to a potential purchaser. The government already plans to ask operators to keep records of all calls and transactions carried over the networks to aid in the tracking of suspected terrorists, who are known to favour the use of prepaid services as there is no obligation, at present, for users to register all of their details with operators and service providers. It is proposed that new customers present the operator or service provider with passports and other official forms of ID before they are allowed onto the network; this would also extend to replacement/renewal or top-ups of prepaid SIM cards. At present, there are 76 million mobile phone users in the UK, of which nearly 68% take prepaid services, so the new database would need to hold a vast amount of appropriately catalogued and tagged information. The Sunday Times reports that the government has been liaising with Vodafone, one of the biggest mobile operators in the UK, with coming up with a workable plan to capture the information.
The proposed Communications Data Bill is still at the draft stage, but it echoes similar pieces of legislation being enacted in many other countries around the world, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, where criminals have proven particularly adept at using mobiles in carrying out fraudulent activities.
Where such mandatory registration procedures have been introduced, operators have reported hefty falls in the numbers of subscribers that have re-registered their details. Leaving aside the notion that criminals may be more reticent to use mobiles, this implies that there are a great many inactive SIM cards out there. Cleaning up their records will give the operators a clearer idea of how their networks and services are being used and where to focus investments and innovations for future developments.
However, consumers are likely to see the new rules as an infringement on their human rights and possibly be disinclined for vote for the incumbent government when it comes to the next general elections. Certainly, the UK electorate are becoming increasingly wary of supplying the authorities with every detail of their waking lives, given that so much government-held data has either been lost or stolen in recent months, and it may be very difficult for the beleagured Labour government to sell the idea to the general public as well as their political opponents at this time. Also, there is the worry that the operators will use the data to target hard-sell advertising at specific consumer groups, or that parts of the database could be sold on to third parties for marketing purposes. A contentious notion, to be sure.
One to keep an eye on, then. I’m all for the idea in principle, but I do worry about the security of the data in the wider scheme of things.
Please feel free to post a response to this blog. I won’t necessarily have time to reply to all comments, but you can be sure I will be reading with interest.
Tags: data security, mobile postpaid, mobile prepaid, mobile regulation, mobile UK
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