Nbtc Pushes Telcos To Register Prepaid Sims

[ThaiLife]

Thailand’s regulator has made a largely symbolic gesture in increasing the fine for mobile operators to $3160 (100,000 baht) a day for failure to properly register prepaid SIM cards as required by law since 2006. The new fines come into effect on May 1st.

Previously, the fine stood at $2,530 (80,000 Baht) a day.

AIS, Dtac, TrueMove, TOT and CAT now all have 15 days to appeal or to pay the increased fine.

The telcos for their part have said that the regulation is impractical and anticompetitive; that if one telco complies first, they would suffer severe market share erosion in Thailand’s highly competitive market.

Thailand currently has 110 million mobile users, 64 million of which are on prepaid against a population of 65 million.

The regulator cites security concerns especially the use of mobile phones to set off roadside bombs in the south for this move.

http://www.telecomas...er-prepaid-sims

[YipYipYa123]

Big brother is watching ........

[lomatopo]

Big brother is watching ........

Back in 2005 each and every SIM "owner" was required by law to register their SIM by Nov. 15, 2005 or risk losing service. Since that time enforcement has waned. Obviously it would be easy to re-implement but no operator wants to be the first to turn away a customer. As a service provider I would look to cost-effective ways to at least demonstrate attempts to foster registration: SMSes to prompt, free calling bonuses, etc. The main issue is the requirement to obtain, perhaps verify, store/process ID cards, passport, names, etc.

If you want to port out a number here it must be registered for at least a week or two, so for some there is an impetus to register.

[hermespan]

<deleted>? I purchased a prepaid truemove data plan about a week ago at their very helpful office in a big mall. Apparently, I already had a SIM card from my last trip in my device. Truly had forgotten. Anyway, all is well except for many, many sexually-oriented blocked sites (FACT, a political anti-censorhsip site about Thailand was not among those blocked). Controversial sites seem to be OK and the blocking of porn sites seemed to be random or just those that included key words in the title.

Anyway, last night I get a message (in Thai naturally, though I would have thought the salesman would have switched the languages of notifications, but he also didn't do whatever is required to set me up for that Truemove WifI plan that supposedly allows access at hotspots such as 7-11.

At notice that displays on every single webiste I go to now (btw, it is not from the WITC or whatever the censorship bureau is called, it is indeed from Truemove) is only one button to click on. I get a bunch of spaces to fill out: name, pawssword. ID card etc. One option is register by email, so that seems less hassle and more private but even that does not work. I have tried a variety of combinations of true, partialy true and entirely false information - nothing works. Using my real name and real passport number does not work. Not exactly Hotmail, more like Cuban government.

It's as if the system is going by whatever I might have registered under a year (?) ago for my SIM card. But indeed did I? I do not remember.

Do I have cause for concern that I have been singled out, or is this just a matter of after a week automatically everyone must register. Which makes me wonder why the salesman didn't warn me this would happen.

And isn't this going to cost telecom companies a whole lot of time doing the apeprwork if they actually have to enforce this? If I was the company I would say to the government, 'if you make us enforce this, due to the amount of labour it will take, we will go out of business.'

Which company is challenging the state most agressively on this matter? Is the government requiring registration of roaming services of foreign telecom. You see the whole can of worms this opens.

[hermespan]

Ii see a black market in registereed SIMs opening up here. 'You want privacy? Let us register for you'. In fact, this is standard prcoedure in Indonesia, albeit at no cost to purchaser. Kiosk vendors do it all the time. Used to be true in Cambodia too, but now there there is a staff of who knows how many monitoring the communications of foreigners (and presumably locals too). Shinwatra's company is the most fascist about enforcement as they are in bed with the Americans.

[hermespan]

Silly me. My credit had just expired. When I went in to a True centre and asked for notifications to be changed to English I was told impossible. You'd think I was asking for Sanskrit.

[Langsuan Man]

Silly me. My credit had just expired. When I went in to a True centre and asked for notifications to be changed to English I was told impossible. You'd think I was asking for Sanskrit.

No. you are just in a Thai speaking country. Try walking into an AT&T, Verizon, Sprint. etc. store in the US and see if you can get your notifications in Thai.....

[hermespan]

Of course this is a Thai speaking country. i just happen to be a native speaker of a world language (Chinese, English). In Canada busineses cater to Chinese by offering materials in Chinese. In Philippines and Cambodia, likewise English. But I agree that Thailand has always been (even during 17th century attempts by the French to meddle) a monolinguistic, monoreligious nation with little to no interest in joining the world community or fostering a cultural mosaic, for better or worse. Malaysia's 'One Malaysia' is fiction, but at least doing business in English is not a problem, perhaps *because* of the diversity. After all, as the colonial powers have left it is neutral to speak English whereas speaking Chinese, Malay, Tamil or Malayalam carries social and political baggage. Of all Asian nations, the mentality of Thailand reminds me a Laoation (Theravada Buddhist) Japan (proud and inward). These aren't bad things of course, just inconvenient if one is Anglophone Mahayana or FrancophoHindu.

[4evermaat]

Yes it is annoying that some messages are only in thai. But the important ones you can usually get the gist of the topic. back on topic

Big brother is watching ........

Back in 2005 each and every SIM "owner" was required by law to register their SIM by Nov. 15, 2005 or risk losing service. Since that time enforcement has waned. Obviously it would be easy to re-implement but no operator wants to be the first to turn away a customer. As a service provider I would look to cost-effective ways to at least demonstrate attempts to foster registration: SMSes to prompt, free calling bonuses, etc. The main issue is the requirement to obtain, perhaps verify, store/process ID cards, passport, names, etc.

If you want to port out a number here it must be registered for at least a week or two, so for some there is an impetus to register.

If you lose your sim card, you have a lesser chance of getting replacement if you did not register basic details that you can then recall to carrier representative to freeze/obtain new sim.

The bonuses idea is a good idea.