US Considering Bill Requiring Identification for Prepaid Cell Phone Purchases

There is some discussion going on at the Federal and State levels about the issue of requiring identification for the purchase of prepaid cell phones. Up until now individuals could walk into any outlet and buy a prepaid cell phone with complete anonymity, a big selling point for this type of service. However, this same anonymity also causes the phones to be popular with drug dealers, terrorists, and illegal immigrants. Many retailers have begun to restrict the number of phones that can be bought at one time to help curb illegal uses but there is no law requiring this to be done.

Senator John Carona from Texas is leading the charge in trying to require government issued ID to be shown and recorded by retailers in order to purchase prepaid mobile phones. He is also proposing to make it law that no more than 3 phones can be bought at one time. These laws, in his opinion, will help curtail criminals from using these phones.

As you can imagine prepaid cellular phone companies like Virgin Mobile USA are fighting hard against this, citing the fact that they have always worked closely with law enforcement to provide the necessary info to help fight back against these criminals. Prepaid cell phone companies state that the bulk of their users are law abiding citizens who value the level of anonymity and privacy that these phones offer. So why should we penalize the majority for what the minority do?

Another major objection to the laws comes from the cost associated with having to gather and store each and every users personal info. Retailers would have to enter in data to the providers database with every sale and providers would have to spend millions to build and maintain this database. The cost would ultimately have to be passed along to the consumer by paying higher prices for the service.

Even if this bill never sees the light in the Federal governement, many states like Michigan, New Jersey and others are considering their own bills to combat the criminal usage patterns.

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