La Jornada: Go backwards: cell phone registration extended by six months

The federal government, through the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (CRT), extended until December 31 the deadline to link cell phone lines – both prepaid and postpaid – to the Unique Population Registration Code (CURP).

Although it did not mention that it is an extension, the agency yesterday released a calendar with the deadlines for users to link their cell phone to their CURP according to the last digit of their line number.

In this way, the deadline for those that end in zero will be August 15, while for those that end with one it will be August 31.

In turn, the deadline for those who have prepaid lines that end with the number 2 will be September 15 and for those that end in 3 it will be the 30th of that month. October 15 and 31 will be the deadlines for terminations 4 and 5, respectively.

Lines whose last digit is 6 and 7 will have the deadline to register on November 15 and 30 of this year, respectively.

Finally, those numbers that end in 8 and 9 must be registered before December 15 and 31, in each case.

Once the period corresponding to each digit has expired, the telephone companies will suspend the service of those lines that have not been linked within the next 72 hours. If the user subsequently registers their line, the telephone company will restore all services: calls, text messages (SMS) and mobile data.

“It is reiterated that the process is not carried out by the government, but is carried out directly before the telephone companies, which only associate the user’s name and CURP with the cell phone number, eliminating any other data or image used during the linking process,” commented the CRT in the statement.

He explained that the registry is carried out so that in the event that a crime is committed that involves the use of a line, the competent authorities can request information from the telephone companies, complying with the provisions provided for by the National Code of Criminal Procedures.

Six days after the end of the period initially defined to register with Telcel, AT&T, Movistar and Altán Redes (the latter for Bait and other virtual mobile operators), there are around 81 million lines left to link, since the universe is 144 million, according to the CRT.

Although the postpaid lines operate by contract, for which users provided personal data, there are some that do not have the CURP associated, so it is necessary to verify it and, where appropriate, register on the Internet sites of the cell phone providers or in their branches.

“To date, 63 million lines have been linked: 40.2 million prepaid and 22.8 million postpaid,” detailed the CRT.

Banamex: design flaws

Banamex maintained in an analysis that the registry has a problem of misaligned incentives and design flaws. “The rational decision of citizens would be not to register, since the expected cost of sharing their information exceeds the perception of the benefit,” he noted. “If trust in institutions is low and/or the data protection record is perceived as weak, citizens will choose not to register, even despite the threat of sanctions,” Banamex stated.

“The disconnection would affect prepaid and lower-income households more (…) The authority can impose the rule, but it cannot force users to trust that their information will be put to good use.

“This generates asymmetry of risks, in which the benefit is collective and diffuse – the possible reduction of crime –, while the cost is individual, immediate and tangible for the user: risk of filtration, identity theft or misuse of their data, plus the costs associated with the registration process.”