Thailand’s telecoms regulator NBTC has warned operators that they will have their operating licenses immediately revoked if they fail to register prepaid SIMs sold from now on.
The regulator has also warned that operators may be fined if phones with an unregistered SIM are sued for illegal activity.
According to the NBTC, the regulator still gets new entries to its online customer information registration system that state “not registered,” despite introducing mandatory SIM registration more than a year ago.
NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith has stated that there will be “no more warning messages from now on,” and that operators allowing prepaid customers to use services without registering their details will have their licenses revoked immediately.
The warning comes in the wake of a spate of recent bombing attacks in the south of the nation, and follows a meeting between the NBTC and more than 20 mobile operators and MVNOs to discuss the issue.
According to a source quoted for the report, there were 36 mobile numbers involved in the recent bombing, and three of these had not been registered.
Regulators are also proposing introducing special tracking SIMs for foreigners as part of Thailand’s SIM registration policy.