Republic of China is demanding that mobile phone customers register their phones using their real identities. Apparently the government wants to reduce anonymity among the country's 800 million mobile users.

All carriers are to adopt the real-name registration system starting this month. Within three years, the carriers must also register the real identities of all sers.

While this has been a policy for a while, it has not been enforced. You could pick up an account on a street newsstands and now these will be prohibited from selling SIM cards.

IT World said that the Chinese government is also taking steps toward an Internet real-name system. Buying mobile cell phones and posting to web forums would be covered by such a system.