Registering Your Mexican Cell Phone

In February of this year, Mexican law-makers rushed a bill through Congress that requires mobile phone operators in Mexico to track and store all customer details, calls, voicemails and text messages.

The new law also requires people acquiring a new pre pay mobile phone to provide official identification at the point of purchase.  The purchase of a “pre pay” mobile phone in Mexico required no proof of identification before this law was passed. Law-makers, citing criminal’s use of mobile phones for extortion and other illicit activities, insisted that this law needed to be ratified in short order.

In response to the new legislation, mobile phone operators have been sending text messages to their customers over the last few weeks, asking them to register their phone by visiting a web site, or using a special number to text their name, date of birth, and the state in which they born.  These details are matched against the country’s existing resident and citizen databases, known as CURP (Clave Unica de Registro de Poblacion), to match the registration of the cell phone number with a specific individual.  The procedure takes a few minutes and, if successful, the system returns a text message confirming the registration.

Any cell phones not registered by April 10, 2010 will be automatically de-activated from the network.

If you are a foreigner visiting Mexico and don’t have a CURP, but currently use a local Mexican mobile phone, you cannot register your existing cell phone online or by text message.  Instead, you need to visit your mobile operator’s customer service center and present your passport as identification.  The attendant will take your personal details and you may also be fingerprinted as part of the procedure.  Mexicans and foreign residents are routinely fingerprinted here; for example, finger prints are already on file for all Mexican citizens under the CURP scheme.

Although the exercise will serve to ‘register’ all of Mexico’s cell phone numbers to an individual, the assertion that this law and its stipulations will serve to reduce crime, trace criminals, or deter criminals from using mobile phones for illicit purposes is moot.

For example, as more than one phone may be registered to a single indivudual, a person with criminal intent can register a mobile phone in someone else’s name by text message if they know their name, date of birth and the Mexican state they were born in.  It’s also unclear whether a deceased or missing person’s details may be employed to register a cell phone.

Furthermore, international mobile phones work on Mexico’s networks as part of global roaming agreements, so cell phones purchased outside of Mexico, in countries where formal registration is not required, as well as phones stolen outside of Mexico, may be used here without the authorities being able to trace its usage to a specific person (or the correct person).

Notwithstanding these issues, if your Mexican mobile phone is lost or stolen, it’s important that you report this to your phone operator and the local police at once, as any subsequent criminal use of a phone registered in your name may be traced back to your person; this reporting procedure prevents any potential legal proceedings being brought against you.

You can find out more about Mexican mobile phones on our guide to Communications in Mexico