SIM card user registration begins

BANGKOK: -- Mobile phone shops at IT Mall in Bangkok, one of the capital's biggest outlets, have reported a smooth start to a new government scheme to identify and register all purchasers of prepaid SIM cards.

Shop owners said customers were cooperating by presenting their identity cards as required when buying new SIM cards.

The new scheme, which began officially today, aims to create a client data base.

The government has said the measure will help curb insurgent violence in the country's three southern border provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, where bombers have used such communication devices to detonate explosives.

IT Mall shop owners said they had already been collecting client data for several days, ahead of the official start of the scheme, even though the government had not yet provided the official forms.

Thailand has 30,000 SIM card outlets across the country with a total sales of 50,000 cards a day.

Shop owners believed the move would not affect sales.

The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), which is responsible for the new registration scheme, yesterday signed a cooperation agreement with seven cell phone service providers to register their prepaid SIM card users.

''The measure is part of the government's attempt to quell the unrest in the deep South and I believe it will not affect the service,'' ICT Minister Suwit Khunkitti said.

He said the data base being created would be treated as confidential information.

The ministry, he said, would begin regulating 21.5 million SIM cards purchased earlier by the end of this month.

''Users must report to police or to their service provider if they have lost their phone or transferred their SIM cards to other users to prevent any misuse,'' he said, adding that official forms would be distributed to SIM card shops within days.

--TNA 2005-05-11

IT Mall shop owners said they had already been collecting client data for several days, ahead of the official start of the scheme, even though the government had not yet provided the official forms.

He said the data base being created would be treated as confidential information.

is identity theft a problem here in thailand?

what is stopping someone ducking down to ko sarn road to get themselves an upper mongolian ID card with which to purchase the sim?

Well, no such country as upper mongolia for a start, and if I recall, non-nationals need to show a passport don't they?

cv

summit else for people to sell on the black market, I dont remember being asked for a passport last time I got some pornos down pan thip

Falangs will need an Elite Card to purchase SIM cards

Falangs will need an Elite Card to purchase SIM cards

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Whats an Elite card?

Falangs will need an Elite Card to purchase SIM cards

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Whats an Elite card?

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Bad joke!!! Somehow I think most wont be bothered...

Bought one today, no personal data necessary.

Bought one today, no personal data necessary.

Wot, a SIM or an Elite Card??

Because of the preparation , training and thought that has gone into this wonderful idea of stopping phones being used to remotely detonate bombs in thailand, if you did attempt to use your upper mongolian ID card ( or passport ) which you had purchased on ko sarn road , highly trained cashiers at the counter of the telecoms establishment would instantly recognise the document as counterfeit and cross check it with the immigration computer databases , enabling the police to arrest you before you could carry out your act of violence.

all you could just believe it is just your standard goverment bucket of &lt;deleted&gt;

According to an article in todays Nation, existing mobile phone users will have from the first of July till the end of the year to register their details; or their services will be suspended. This apparently is to be done through a TOT office or the post office. Can one imagine the chaos, that is going to result with 22 million users trying to register. I for one have little faith in the efficiency of very few organisations, let alone the TOT or the post office. I suspect that it would be easier and more convenient to simply purchase a new SIM card. All this of course to stop bombs in the south? And of course we all believe the data will not be abused!