Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Duc Long.

Today afternoon, at a regular press conference to provide new information and data about blocking and filtering junk SIMs and unauthorized SIMs, the Ministry of Information and Communications said that after checking with the National Population Database, the ministry processed and filtered out 19.6 million subscribers who registered their inconsistent personal information with the database.

Approximately 7.15 million subscribers have standardized their personal information so far. Telecommunications businesses have removed 12.5 million unregistered SIMs from the system. These are the SIMs that the subscriber does not update and standardize the information even though it is overdue.

According to Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Duc Long, the Ministry is drastically handling SIMs with incorrect subscriber information and SIMs without genuine owners.

Thanks to the National Population Database released by the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Information and Communications can check whether users' subscription information was accurate or not, said Deputy Minister Pham Duc Long.

The Ministry of Information and Communications’ data shows that every month, 1.5 million new subscribers register. New subscribers have been checked with the National Database on Population. Currently, three major phone operators Viettel, VNPT, and MobiFone, accounting for 85 percent of new subscribers, have connected directly to the National Population Database. When the three operators register a new subscription, the subscriptions of these three networks will be checked online. If they match the National Population Database, new subscription will be accepted.

The remaining network operators such as Vietnamobile, Wintel, Itel currently account for 15 percent of the total number of new subscribers entering the market every month. These carriers have not been able to connect to the National Population Database. However, according to regulations, these operators monthly have to send data on new subscribers to the Ministry of Information and Communications. Thus, if a new subscription does not match the National Population Database, its subscription will be deleted from the system.

Deputy Minister Pham Duc Long said that many people are willing to stand in their names to register as subscribers. Therefore, even a subscriber registered with real registration information, real name, and real address but the phone number is used by others.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communications’ latest figures

- The percentage of households using fiber optic cable reaches 78.3 percent, an increase of 6.2 percent over the same period last year. The country strives for 84 percent of households using fiber optic cable this year.

- The number of subscribers using fixed broadband is 22.3 million (equivalent to the rate of 22.4 subscribers/100 people), up 7.7 percent over the same period last year. The country aims to attain 25 subscribers/100 people by December 2023.

- The number of mobile broadband subscribers reaches 86.6 million or the rate of 87.07 subscribers/100 people, an increase of 6.3 percent over the same period last year. The country tries to achieve 90 subscribers/100 people by December 2023.

- Mobile phone subscribers using smartphones are estimated to reach 101.2 million subscribers, a year-on-year increase of 7.77 percent, an increase of 7.3 million subscribers.

Source: SGGP