NBTC to propose special SIM cards for foreign tourists so they can be traced

[gandalf12]

On 02/08/2016 at 6:54 PM, Misterwhisper said:

Of course the basic idea is not bad. However, the way in which it's been presented by Mr. Thakorn is the typical condescending - and unfortunately xenophobic - argument of a local bureaucrat, as it paints all visiting foreigners as potential criminals.

He could have packaged it much more benevolently: The special SIM cards will assist us to ensure visitors' safety while vacationing in the kingdom and help to locate them faster if they are in some sort of trouble.

I have a better idea if good Mr. Thakorn is oh so concerned about "national security": Just microchip each foreigner right at the airport like cattle.

Or even better still: Close Thailand's borders to all those pesky foreigners if they really pose such a threat to Thailand's "national security".

And besides: What would prevent a criminal NOT to use that special SIM card and instead have a like-minded local purchase one for therm?

Or steal someone else's phone and use that?

[gandalf12]

It will do nothing to track the people that have bad intentions. It just seems a somewhat derogatory step to assume all foreigners are going to perform criminal acts. Maybe they could use the system to stop Thai's performing criminal acts then it would be good. Like foreigners it is a small percentage that do bad things but if foreigners are all to be considered bad then surely it must extend to locals

[gandalf12]

TAT says that Thailand gets something like 20 million tourists a year. Will be interesting to see how all of these people can be tracked and of course will be speaking different languages; not everyone will speak say English. The will be a requirement for thousands of people to man the monitoring stations and to interpret on the fly every conversation

[Khunyouyouu]

14 hours ago, joeyg said:

 I have not seen anywhere, such a dense concentration of expat psychopaths, sociopaths, freaks and liars.  Although it probably won't be the cure. Anything that can be done to monitor the flow these "dregs" I think is a good thing.  IMHO...

Very well put, thanks for that!
This is been my very same experience here so far, the place it's litterally stuffed with very unpleasant users which clearly
suffer from the issues you have highlited and possibly more.
The big deal however it's not really that, as the forum it's just a reflection of the reality out there, but more about the way these
people are been dealt with.
Not only the various abuses are not being taken care of, but the way it works is that you will end up with a closed thread if any of these idiots start writing their stuff in there, so, there seems to be lots of complacency.
The reason why this it's happening, to me it's really simple to explain.
Try to visit the house of a proper person, and you will find every thing in order, try to visit someone which it's into some particular hobby, and you will find its place full of the stuff he's into, so, what this does it say about the people behind TV???
And what it's hilarious, it's the fact that some of these really messed up people, even jumped on the only thread i made, to publicize a website which wanted the site to be reported to the authorities and be closed down because it was not already bad enough..., nobody seemed to care about it, but guess what? They closed a conversation which had nothing to do with it, sometime i think that there is someone there, which has more than one account, and do this just to justify something which it's really unjustifiable, thinking that we are all thick and twisted the same way they are.....
So, don't be surprised that ThaiVisa it's crammed with such elements, their actions are being encouraged in the way i described, while at the same time punishing the ones pointing out at the problems, it can only get worse, trust me.
Do i wish the site to be closed down or reported as the hard wing of them it's asking for? No, that's the same thing that *someone* here it's doing, hopefully they are not all like that, censorship it's bad, the only thing i would really hope to see, it's a bit more of common sense....

[joeyg]

2 hours ago, Khunyouyouu said:

Very well put, thanks for that!
This is been my very same experience here so far, the place it's litterally stuffed with very unpleasant users which clearly
suffer from the issues you have highlited and possibly more.
The big deal however it's not really that, as the forum it's just a reflection of the reality out there, but more about the way these
people are been dealt with.
Not only the various abuses are not being taken care of, but the way it works is that you will end up with a closed thread if any of these idiots start writing their stuff in there, so, there seems to be lots of complacency.
The reason why this it's happening, to me it's really simple to explain.
Try to visit the house of a proper person, and you will find every thing in order, try to visit someone which it's into some particular hobby, and you will find its place full of the stuff he's into, so, what this does it say about the people behind TV???
And what it's hilarious, it's the fact that some of these really messed up people, even jumped on the only thread i made, to publicize a website which wanted the site to be reported to the authorities and be closed down because it was not already bad enough..., nobody seemed to care about it, but guess what? They closed a conversation which had nothing to do with it, sometime i think that there is someone there, which has more than one account, and do this just to justify something which it's really unjustifiable, thinking that we are all thick and twisted the same way they are.....
So, don't be surprised that ThaiVisa it's crammed with such elements, their actions are being encouraged in the way i described, while at the same time punishing the ones pointing out at the problems, it can only get worse, trust me.
Do i wish the site to be closed down or reported as the hard wing of them it's asking for? No, that's the same thing that *someone* here it's doing, hopefully they are not all like that, censorship it's bad, the only thing i would really hope to see, it's a bit more of common sense....

Thank you for your candid and sincere response.  I was just talking with a friend this morning from Chicago along these lines.  I said, to the effect, "Is everybody I meet here crazy?"  He lives in Mai Phim, about 90 minutes south of Pattaya with his wife.  He laughed and said he had 2 long time friends, long time residents of Thailand  that were saying the same thing.  Anyway they were looking for other places to live.

 

Personally I like it here.  I just do my best to avoid expats and things are mostly OK.  I wonder if it's just the kind of person that "gravitates" here or does something "happen to them" when they're here for a while.

 

I'm not a Thai apologist.  Yes this country has it's problems as does everyplace, blah, blah, blah.  Like I said though corruption.  USA sets the standard.  Everything else is just "kids stuff."  I think Thailand is as easy as it gets.

 

You don't love it? Leave it!  LOL  

 

And strong letter to follow...

[tifino]

What about upon Exit from LOS?

Do they perform a checksum on your belongings, and demand what you did with the LOS SIM after you finished with it?

We always donate it (our True or whatever at the time) to someone local, who can then avail themselves of any Credit/Tim left over

 

here you are at the airport, and be required to power your phone up prior to boarding to prove it is not a plastic bomb.

A mobile can still power up visually without the SIM in it. 

 

Is there going to be a dedicated IT booth set up - especially for detaining you until they perform a Call/Internet transaction history on you?

 

I can see it now... Just like at CarParks when someone leaving the park, gives their still alive park slip to someone on their way IN

Us naughty terrorists tourists could very well be giving (not selling) our old SIMs to someone, over in the Arrivals Hall, in a never ending cycle...

 

My mind is starting to boggle at the potential... all those potential headaches in the techlab, when bunches of assessed SIMs don't match the Passport of the persons' Issued

 

Yeah! with enough joint effort, of combined tourists brains, we could eventually bog the System down, in it's own RedTape

Edited August 5, 2016 by tifino

[rhythmworx]

I guess it won't work when trying to trace a stolen phone, nor trace someone that was at a crime scene where a farang was found dead.

 

 

 

[crobe]

And here is where the problems start

The majority of foreign tourists do not purchase local sims for a short stay - they rely on wifi for their facebook postings and if anything use a roaming package - but overhwlmingly they want to keep their own number so that they receive the messaging from their apps - and if there is an emergenxy fronm eople back home, that they can be contacted.

 

Most foreign tourists do not want to go to the trouble of contacting all their contacts to say they have a new number for a week.

 

So the only way to enforce this is to get the telecm operators to block all foreign roaming - which is why Thakom is now going to see them.

But foreign roaming is a huge revenue for these companies which they will not want to give up

 

If they block all foreign roaming phoines then there will be a backlash from foreign business people coming to Thailand.

 

So Thakom goes to True and talks to the CEO - who calls his boss Charoen at CP, who calls Prayut and this is all dropped.

 

It is actually easier for the telecoms companies to trace foreign roaming sims than to set up new systems for a different class of Thai sims

 

I expect this will be like the requirement for visitors to put a contact phone number on their immigration card when they came into the airport - caused so much trouble and delays that it was dropped in a couple of weeks.

 

 

 

 

[TheMacMan]

On 7/28/2017 at 6:22 AM, Mansinthe said:

Old thread but dual sim phones are a solution. Allows you to keep your normal number for apps while using the new one for local thai calls or apps. And you are still avaible in cases of emergencys at home.

 

Adding a new number to line or what's app to use the internet connection is fairly easy as well.

All true.... but many phones are NOT (stupid, I know!) dual-SIM capable.... and that includes (amongst many makes) the whole range of Apple phones which have a HUGE market share, abroad and in Thailand itself!!!   So won't work as yet  

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎8‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 6:37 PM, taichiplanet said:

the ones that want to engage in illegal activities won't be carrying those sims around with them anyway.

Just offer us all ankle monitors with the promise of a free beer every week and most would gladly wear it!

Nah, they'll be injecting us with trackers in case we don't carry the phone.

They really, really hate having farangs in Thailand, don't they.

[thaibeachlovers]

What ever happened to not having a phone while on holiday?

I can only surmise that the sheeple can't go a day without calling mummy to tell them they are OK in the big bad world because it's like sooooooooooooooooooo dangerous everywhere.

Edited July 29, 2017 by thaibeachlovers

[dcnx]

On 8/2/2016 at 7:00 PM, Mango Bob said:

So if someone wanted to do illegal acts here.  Buy a cheap phone and put the sims in and leave it at one location.   This is very stupid idea with many ways to fool the authorized.  Someone who here to hide or commit crimes will surely get around this ridiculous idea. 

1. People are about to get rich off of this. It has nothing to do with anything else.

 

2. Criminals will always find a way.

 

3. There is a good chance some other dummy will come up in a few days and say this won't be moving forward.

[Oziex1]

Good one, how many tourists per year 21 Million.

 

Anyway you want to commit a crime in an organised way you just have to grease the right palms you'll be OK. For a while at least.

[dcnx]

On 8/5/2016 at 7:41 AM, gandalf12 said:

TAT says that Thailand gets something like 20 million tourists a year. Will be interesting to see how all of these people can be tracked and of course will be speaking different languages; not everyone will speak say English. The will be a requirement for thousands of people to man the monitoring stations and to interpret on the fly every conversation

I'll bet you $1000 the Chinese will find a way around it within a week. Many already buy their dtac cards IN China cheaper than they sell for in Thailand and they are already activated with some agent's ID, bypassing the passport that is needed by each user. 

[dcnx]

On 8/10/2016 at 2:05 AM, rhythmworx said:

I guess it won't work when trying to trace a stolen phone, nor trace someone that was at a crime scene where a farang was found dead.

 

 

 

Of course it won't. It will be defective when it's needed the most.

 

But this is about a new way for some pooyais to make bank, nothing more. So don't expect them to ever work or actually be traced.

 

 

[YetAnother]

"He maintained that this is a matter of national security and it should not be deemed as a violation of the right to privacy of individuals.

Thai nationals are not required to use SIM cards which can be used to trace back to their locations because they were required to show their ID cards when they bought SIM cards, explained Mr Thakorn."

Sure want this guy as my neighbor,

he like the vast majority of thais make absolutely no distinction between expats and real tourists and that includes the immigration Bureau (scary)

[YetAnother]

"Thai nationals are not required to use SIM cards which can be used to trace back to their locations because they were required to show their ID cards when they bought SIM cards, explained Mr Thakorn"

 

How different is Twisted logic from being irrational?

[YetAnother]

Will have my Thai wife sign up for six new ones pronto

[JAG]

I thought that this whole matter had died of lack of interest last year?