More than 1.85 million prepaid mobile subscribers were deactivated in the first six months of the year.

As “waste” SIMs and pre-activated SIMs are still available in the market, theministry has penalised four network service providers, namely Viettel,Vinaphone, MobiFone and Vietnamobile for violating management of subscribers’information.

It already issued documents to rectify the network providers on the purchase ofunregistered or improperly registered SIM, which poses great risks of socialdisorder and stability. Accordingly, they are ordered to end services with anysubscribers who they cannot define identity.

By the end of June, Vietnam has 134.5 million 3G and 4G users, up 9.3 percentfrom the same time last year.

The MIC has licensed three firms to pilot 5G services, and the telecom giantViettel and Sweden’s Ericsson Group successfully conducted the first call using5G technology in Vietnam.

Besides, the ministry asked telecommunications enterprises to removebottlenecks, work transparently when switching from one mobile network operatorto another, and strictly implement regulations on discount programmes.-VNA