China will begin requiring prepaid cell phone subscribers to register their devices using their real names in 2006 said the country’s Minister of Information Industry, Wang Xudong.

The goal according to Wang Xudong is to cut down on surging cell phone spam and fraud, most of it delivered via text messaging.

He estimated that of the 388 million cell phone users, some 200 million will have to register their phones.
Source: XinHua News Agency

We already have the same requirement in India for quite sometime. It has helped us in tracking terrorists and criminals.