Ending June 15 - the time when telecommunications businesses began to apply one-way locking measures to subscribers who have not confirmed their usage status, the Telecommunications Department (Ministry of Science and Technology) said that it has handled 18 million phone numbers subject to temporary suspension of incoming calls and outgoing text messages according to regulations.
Before the time of applying the handling measure, more than 93 million phone numbers were confirmed by users as their own owners on the VNeID application. In addition, more than 2 million numbers were confirmed by people as no longer being used by them.
However, there are still nearly 18 million numbers that have not confirmed their usage status. This is a group of subscribers who have been subject to the measure of locking incoming calls and outgoing messages since June 15 to request users to carry out confirmation according to the provisions of Circular 08.
Notably, among nearly 18 million unconfirmed numbers, telecommunications businesses assess that there are about 10 million SIMs with a high probability of no longer needing to be used or not excluding the possibility that they are pre-activated SIMs. The assessment is based on the analysis of usage data, including signs such as no consumption for a long time or an individual holding a large number of SIMs.
On the first day of deployment, telecommunications businesses simultaneously implemented one-way locking for subscribers subject to handling. Viettel said it had one-way locked more than 5 million subscribers from 0:00 on June 15. Meanwhile, VinaPhone began to temporarily suspend outgoing calls and outgoing text messages for nearly 3 million subscribers from 9:00 on the same day. MobiFone network operator also officially deployed temporary suspension of outgoing service provision (calls and outgoing SMS text messages) for about 2.6 million subscribers who have not completed authentication/verification of owner information as prescribed.
Telecommunications businesses said that immediately after completing successful authentication, the subscriber will be reopened for the service. Users can perform online authentication through VNeID or the network operator's application, and are supported directly at transaction points nationwide.
According to information from network operators, the number of subscribers who have re-confirmed after being one-way locked is still being compiled. Official data will be updated after completing the statistical process from network operators.
According to the current roadmap, one-way locked subscribers will have an additional 60 days to complete usage status confirmation. If this time limit expires and they have not yet performed, the subscriber will continue to be two-way locked. After 5 days from the time of two-way locking but still not completing authentication, the subscriber number will be revoked according to regulations.
