China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is considering a real name registration policy for mobile phone users. The ministry is working with other government departments to draft the policy, which could come into effect by the end of 2010, Interfax reports citing an MIIT official. The move is part of the Chinese government's effort to crackdown on pornographic content on the internet and WAP sites. The ministry foresees two major obstacles to implementing the policy. Firstly, the country has almost 200 million unregistered mobile users, or about 30 percent of the total. Secondly, it will be difficult for mobile handset distributors to confirm real names and carry out the relevant checks during the sales process. In 2006, the MIIT trialled a real name registration policy to curb SMS spam. However, the trials were unsuccessful and the scheme was then abandoned.

source:telecompaper