The Foreign Investors Association (FIA) opposes the ban on the sale of prepaid anonymous SIM cards and the introduction of registration for all holders of such cards.
These measures are part of the Crime Prevention and Control Program 2022-2025, a draft of which has been re-submitted for public consultations. FIA is asking that the initiative be dropped, given the potential socio-economic consequences of mandatory registration and the limited usefulness of the initiative in fighting crime and terrorism. The organization, which includes two of Moldova's largest cell phone operators, cites a study that notes a lack of empirical data showing a direct link between the ban on anonymous SIM cards and a reduction in crime. Criminals can use anonymous cards issued in other countries or use cards registered in other people's names. FIA cites the experience of the U.S., Britain, Canada, New Zealand and South Korea, as well as most EU countries, which planned to introduce but eventually abandoned the policy of prepaid cards. At the same time there are terrorist attacks in the countries which have introduced restrictions, and the European Commission said that the effectiveness of the ban on the sale of prepaid SIM-cards has not been proven, so at EU level the obligation to register all users of prepaid cards was not introduced. FIA also draws attention to the significant social and economic costs of implementing such an initiative. The introduction of the obligation to register SIM cards could lead to the digital, financial and social exclusion of vulnerable categories of people. Poor citizens, pensioners, people with disabilities, the unemployed and young people from villages, where there are no operators' points of sale, will have to go to the district centers to register as SIM-card users. In Moldova there are 3.3 mln. pre-paid cards, 80% of them are active, so the operators will need time and finances to equip their points of sale to ensure registration of all users, and the logistics of this process are expensive. Additional costs for operators could lead to higher mobile tariffs and lower demand for mobile telephony services in the villages of the country, respectively, making it even less attractive to invest in network development in these areas. In its letter, FIA notes the risks of leakage or loss of personal data if the registration process is organized at points of sale such as gas stations, supermarkets, post offices and kiosks, and provides other arguments against the introduction of mandatory registration of SIM card holders. // 03.02.2023 - InfoMarket.
