Jakarta. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology will render inactive mobile phone numbers that users fail to register by May 1.

In October, the ministry made it obligatory for SIM card holders to register, with an aim to reduce the use of cellular phones in criminal activities.

The initial deadline lapsed on Wednesday (28/02).

The registration process is easy, as it only requires users to provide their citizen identity card (KTP) and family card (KK) numbers via SMS to 4444.

"Within 30 days [or by March 31], unregistered mobile users won't be able to make outgoing calls and send SMS. Then, after 15 days, they won't be able to receive calls. After another 15 days, if they're still unregistered, we will block their numbers," the ministry's director general for postal service and informatics, Ahmad Ramli, said in a statement recently.

According to the ministry, with a population of 260 million, Indonesia has 360 million mobile phone numbers, 60 million of which are not used.

"This registration is for the sake of our own security and convenience. With so many over-the-top services available ... probably soon we won't even use physical identity cards anymore," Ahmad said.

The ministry guarantees that private data provided during the registration will be secure.

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