Nearly 1 million SIMs will be recalled

The Telecommunications Department will direct mobile telecommunications businesses to continue standardizing subscriber information and handle the situation of SIM cards with subscriber information that does not comply with regulations.

Mr. Nguyen Phong Nha, Deputy Director of the Department of Telecommunications (Ministry of Information and Communications), said that up to now, more than 154,000 two-way locked subscribers have standardized their personal information. This number only accounts for about 13.48% of two-way locked subscribers who must standardize their personal information according to regulations.

A representative of the Telecommunications Department said that after April 15, 1.15 million subscribers were locked in both directions. Thus, up to this point, there are still more than 1 million subscribers who have been locked in both directions and have not standardized their personal information. The subscribers will be revoked if they have not standardized their subscriber information according to regulations after May 15.

The Telecommunications Department said that the number of subscribers with 2-way lockouts who are re-registering their information is not high at present. This shows that it is almost certain that nearly 1 million SIMs will be recalled to the number warehouse.

Previously, the Department of Telecommunications said that it would coordinate with the Departments of Information and Communications to monitor and inspect the implementation process of enterprises. In particular, with the development of new subscribers, it would report to the leaders of the Ministry of Information and Communications for strict handling, including proposing to suspend the development of new subscribers for violating enterprises, especially those providing services to newly developed subscribers with incomplete or inaccurate information, selling and circulating on the market subscriber SIMs with pre-entered information, and activating mobile services for SIMs.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phuc, Director of the Department of Telecommunications, said that in May and June, the Ministry of Information and Communications will organize large-scale inspections with the participation of the Department of Information and Communications of provinces and cities nationwide to strictly handle violations of subscriber information on phones.

Accordingly, the Telecommunications Department will direct mobile telecommunications businesses to continue standardizing subscriber information, handling the situation of SIMs with incorrect subscriber information, also known as junk SIMs. Prevent and handle violations related to advertising calls and phone numbers on advertising lists.

In addition, the Telecommunications Department will deploy systems to prevent and block spam calls, applying artificial intelligence technology, big data and advanced technology solutions. At the same time, the authorities will provide users with tools to proactively prevent them from their terminal devices.

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phuc, after standardizing subscriber information with the national population database, in the next step, the Ministry of Information and Communications will handle subscribers who own 10 or more SIM cards. The Ministry of Information and Communications needs time to conduct inspections and checks to overcome this situation. Handling and disseminating some typical cases is expected to have a strong impact on awareness and contribute to deterring violations.

Recently, Lieutenant General Nguyen Duy Ngoc, Deputy Minister of Public Security, said that the authentication of the National Population Database with phone numbers has contributed to changing the situation. The Ministry of Information and Communications has implemented it strongly and by April 15, subscribers who were not authenticated had their two-way communication cut off. Through this, 1.2 million subscribers who were not authenticated were discovered and many of them have the potential to be used by criminals to commit crimes.

To prevent cybercrime, Deputy Minister Nguyen Duy Ngoc said that the Ministry of Public Security will soon discuss with banks to authenticate payment accounts.

According to Vietnamnet