More than 88 million people using unregistered, prepaid SIMs will lose their service if they don’t register their identities with the government by the end of July.
Looking to strengthen its policing of telecommunications, authorities gave users six months to register, after which their service will be terminated if they failed to do so.
Thakorn Tantasit of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission said it was necessary to protect the public from scams commissioned using such cards. He also acknowledged “national security” reasons behind the desire to link every SIM card to an identifiable user, as unregistered users can not be tracked by the government.
To register owners must bring their SIM cards and identification to their service provider. Thakorn said eventually registration would be possible at 7-Eleven stores.
Come Aug. 1, if users haven’t registered, their cards will stop working, according to state media.
Only 1.6 million of about 90 million SIM cards are registered, according to the commission.
Photo: Eyeliam
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