By August 30, violations of subscribers owning more than 10 SIMs will be handled.

The Ministry of Information and Communications has established inspection teams to inspect compliance with the law on subscriber information management for telecommunications enterprise branches and telecommunications service providers.

Completed checking of individuals and businesses owning more than 10 SIMs

A representative of the Department of Telecommunications (Ministry of Information and Communications) said that in the second quarter of 2023, the Ministry of Information and Communications directed telecommunications enterprises to complete the reconciliation of subscriber information with the national population database. After that, the Ministry of Information and Communications established inspection teams to inspect compliance with the law on subscriber information management for telecommunications enterprise branches, telecommunications service providers, and organizations/individuals registering a large number of SIM cards.

Through inspection work, it was discovered that some subscribers owned many SIM cards that were not in accordance with regulations, which could easily be exploited by bad guys using subscriber numbers under other people's names (anonymously) to spread spam calls, spam messages, and calls with signs of fraud, causing disorder in social security.

At the same time, during the past years of use, some subscribers have changed their users due to various reasons, but have not updated the correct user and owner of the subscriber number, leading to the possibility that although the subscriber information still matches the population database, the user does not match the information of the person whose name is registered for the subscription.

To support customers in accurately updating subscriber number information, avoiding suspension of SIMs that violate legal regulations during the inspection of subscriber information management (users do not know that they are using their subscriber number under another person's name), implementing the direction of the leaders of the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Department of Telecommunications has requested telecommunications enterprises to review subscribers who own multiple SIMs; assign telecommunications enterprises to clarify the ownership of subscriber numbers by organizations and individuals who have signed contracts according to the form and general transaction conditions with telecommunications enterprises; notify customers in the list of subscribers who own multiple SIMs, requesting them to update the correct information of the actual user/owner of that subscriber number.

In addition, the Telecommunications Department also directed businesses to deploy solutions to support telecommunications service users in updating information in the most convenient way (direct transaction points, through direct tools or sending business employees directly to support).

The Department of Telecommunications said that by July 7, 2023, telecommunications businesses will have completed processing subscriber files of corporate customers owning more than 10 SIMs and by July 25, 2023, they will have completed processing subscriber files of individual customers owning more than 10 SIMs.

Handling violations of subscribers owning more than 10 SIMs

The representative of the Department of Telecommunications said that the goal of this round of handling is that the SIM user is the owner (name) of that subscriber number. The measures that the Department of Telecommunications is directing to be implemented at the most drastic level to achieve the above goal.

“By July 7, 2023, the Ministry of Information and Communications has directed network operators to handle the corporate customer files of more than 3 million SIMs. From now until July 25, 2023, network operators will continue to handle the individual customer files. With the drastic participation of the management agency and network operators, by August 30, the violations of subscribers owning more than 10 SIMs will be resolved,” said a representative of the Telecommunications Department.

However, to achieve the set goals, contributing to handling spam calls and spam messages, there needs to be strong participation of press and media agencies to support and accompany in propagating and mobilizing people and customers using services to follow the announcements of network operators, proactively review and update accurate subscriber information, ensuring that customers owning SIM cards are the correct users.

“In addition, customers also need to cooperate with network operators if they receive notifications from service providers, to join hands to prevent bad guys from taking advantage of subscriber information registration in previous stages, using subscriber numbers under other people's names, anonymously to carry out fraudulent tricks, and disrupt security and order,” said a representative of the Telecommunications Department.

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