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rsita, 21, a fresh graduate, has switched SIM cards on more than 10 occasions since her first cell phone in 2005.

She said she was shocked to hear about the government'€™s plan to oblige prepaid SIM card users to register their complete profiles with the operators'€™ official outlets.

'€œIt will be a big pain because not all people have the time to make the journey to operators'€™ official outlets. Some, like my grandparents, even live in small villages where official outlets are too far away,'€ she said on Friday.

Arsita, now living in Surakarta, Central Java, said the regulation, if imposed, would limit options for customers.

'€œI have migrated from one operator to another and finally found the one that best accommodated my needs,'€ she said.

She added that the regulation would make it even harder for youngsters, who usually searched for cheap Internet broadband packages.

Wiranto, 28, said he did not mind registering his complete profile in the operators'€™ database, but did not like the requirement to register with operators'€™ official outlets.

'€œFor me and maybe for other existing SIM card users and new users, the regulation will be very time consuming,'€ he said.

Indonesian Telecommunication Regulatory Body (BRTI) member Riant Nugroho said previously that the regulation was aimed at cracking down on those who often utilized prepaid cards for crime.

Riant explained that the regulation would be in the form of a ministerial regulation and would provide a transition period for all cellular operators to adjust to, with a 6-month period for existing customers to register themselves, with their personal identity cards with operators'€™ official outlets.

Communications and Information Ministry director general for post and informatics resources Muhammad Budi Setiawan said his ministry had yet to issue the regulation, but had notified all telecommunication operators of the plan.

'€œWe'€™ve discussed with BRTI and all operators and they all basically agreed with the plan,'€ he said.

The ministry would also bar small retailers and unofficial distributors from selling new prepaid cards, but would still allow them to sell phone credit.

The Indonesian Cellular Phone Provider Association'€™s (ATSI) Alexander Rusli said the regulation would reduce operators'€™ turn rate '€” the migration intensity of customers from one operator to another.

'€œThe lower turn rate means that operators will have an exact number of loyal customers. We estimate that the industry'€™s turn rate will decrease to between 7 and 8 percent from the current level of 15 percent, once the regulation takes effect,'€ he pointed out.

Djoko Tata Ibrahim, deputy CEO of code division multiple access (CDMA) operator PT Smartfren Telecom, said his firm was preparing to have 15,000 devices that could help distributors register customer identification cards quickly.