5 Telco Companies Fined RM750,000 For Registering New SIM Cards Without Verification

Five telco companies have been fined RM750,000 in total after failing to register new prepaid SIM cards with required ID verification.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) gave out a total of 15 compounds to the companies on 4th December (Friday).

According to a local portal, MCMC took action by referring to the audit performed in Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan between August and October last year. It is reported that MCMC has issued a total of 70 compounds this year, which totals to RM3.45mil.

Between all the companies which were slapped with fines, Digi received the most compounds, totaling five (5), which amounts to RM250,000. The list goes down with Maxis receiving four (4) compounds worth RM200,000 and U Mobile with three (3) compounds valued at RM150,000. The other two companies are Tune Talk (2 compounds) and YTL (1 compound), which were fined RM100,000 and RM50,000 respectively.

As per MCMC, the telco companies have violated Section 127 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 which prohibits the registration of new prepaid SIM cards without verification. A proper verification is needed in order to prevent and counter prepaid services which are misused for illegal activities.

Previously, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said that as of October, a total of 1,377,862 prepaid lines were detected to have dubious registration details.

Sources: SoyaCincau, TheEdgeMarkets.