Studio Press

Mobile service provider, DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd is confident of getting its current 4.4 million prepaid mobile phone users to register by end of this year, said its chief marketing officer, Chee Pok Jin. The company and other telcos (Maxis and Celcom) are working with the government to send out short message services (SMS) for the registration purpose, he told reporters after the launch of two new DiGi services, Talktime Advance and Talktime Extend, here, today. At the moment, prepaid mobile phone users can get their lines registered through telco centres and dealer shops by providing information such as identity card number and name, he said. Recently, Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik announced that prepaid mobile phone users would be given until end of this year to register, failing which they will face the termination of their phone lines. He had said that only 1.2 million of the total 14 million prepaid users in the country had registered their lines. The move to register prepaid mobile users followed incidents of abusive and threatening messages sent by users of prepaid services. Chee said his company has invested RM1 million for the development of its two new services, Talktime Advance and Talktime Extend, and that it will be spending another RM1 million on advertising and promotions. -- BERNAMA