CityNews – June 19, Thakorn Tanthasit, Secretary-General of the Office of The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), visited Mae Hia Municipality, where a service centre has been set up for those who use top-up sim cards on their mobile phones to officially register.
Thakorn was welcomed by local authorities and residents who were waiting to register their mobile top-up sim cards.
According to Thakorn, the last day for the mandatory registration of all mobile top-up sim cards is July 31st. From August 1st onwards, residents who haven’t yet registered their mobile top-up sim cards won’t be able to make a phone call. They will be able to answer incoming call only. They will also be alerted and urged to register their sim cards each time they use their phones, so that they can make phone calls again. However, emergency calls can be still made.
“There are around 90 million mobile top-up sim cards in the market,” said Thakorn, “yet only 54 million sim cards have been registered so far. I believe that around more 60 – 70 million sim cards will be registered before July 31.”
“The registration of mobile top-up sim cards will maintain residents’ rights,” he says. “Unlike unregistered sim cards, when they cancel their registered mobile top-up sim cards, they can actually get whatever money is left in the system back from the phone companies.”
“Around a billion baht in total has been found to be left in the system after unregistered sim cards have been cancelled,” he added, though CityNews were unable to verify or specify this claim.
He also added that this matter is also about national security. Unregistered mobile top-up sim cards have been used in igniting bombs in the three Southern border provinces as well as other big cities in Thailand.
Most importantly, call centre schemes often use unregistered sim cards to call and deceive residents. The registration, he believes, will help solve these problems.
He insisted that after residents register their mobile top-up sim cards, the government won’t examine their mobile use history such as LINE applications and social media.
Over 60,000 centres have been set up by service companies across the country for registrations. Plus, residents can also register at 2,400 government institutes with residence registrations such as district offices or local administrative organisations across the country for free.
Thai people can register their mobile top-up sim cards by using their ID card. Foreigners can use passports and immigrant workers can use their ID cards in registration.
To check whether your sim card is registered, call *151#.