According to Nguyen Anh Cuong, Deputy Director of the Telecommunications Authority under the Ministry of Science and Technology, about 60 million mobile subscriptions have successfully completed ownership verification.

At present, approximately 91.3% of mobile subscriptions are using smartphones.

Speaking at the ministry’s regular press briefing on April 29, Nguyen Anh Cuong noted that there has been confusion between two concepts: re-verifying subscriber information to ensure accuracy in line with regulations, and confirming actual ownership of a mobile number.

First, the verification of subscriber information in accordance with regulations has been carried out regularly and continuously. This process ensures that subscriber data is registered with valid documents and correctly matches the individual when cross-checked against the national population database.

The comprehensive review conducted in 2023 aimed to ensure that all subscriber information was linked to valid identification documents verified against the national database. During this phase, 17 million subscriptions with invalid documents were handled - 11 million were standardized and 6 million were revoked.

At that time, due to technical limitations, only three data fields - name, date of birth, and address - were cross-checked. Circular 08 has since added facial image data to improve verification accuracy and reduce fraudulent practices, such as identity manipulation through altered photos that telecom operators could not previously detect.

Both in the past and at present, this verification process has been carried out by telecom service providers. It does not require all users to re-verify their information.

In most cases, users have already provided sufficient details, including images, when registering new subscriptions. They are only required to update their information if discrepancies are detected during cross-checking, if their identification documents have expired, or if they are found to be using a SIM not registered under their name.

In such cases, users will receive notifications from their telecom providers requesting re-verification.

Second, regarding actual ownership, the verification process since 2023 has ensured that each active mobile subscription is linked to a specific individual and a valid identification document.

Under the 2023 Telecommunications Law, users are legally responsible for the mobile numbers registered under their names. However, after 30 years of market development, Vietnam now has nearly 120 million subscriptions across 10 mobile networks.

There have been cases where individuals were held accountable after losing control of their mobile numbers without terminating services, allowing those numbers to be used for unlawful activities.

Therefore, a tool is needed to help users review, confirm, and clean up their mobile subscriptions to ensure true ownership.

One of the key innovations of Circular 08, based on Decree 70/2024/ND-CP and supported by the Ministry of Public Security’s Department C06, is the creation of a centralized database on VNeID. This allows users, for the first time, to check all SIM cards registered under their names across different networks and confirm which ones they are actively using.

Under the regulation, telecom providers have up to 30 days from April 15 to upload all subscriber data to the VNeID system.

Data integration is still ongoing, with the Ministry of Public Security working closely with telecom operators. As a result, some users may not yet see complete information on the platform.

So far, more than 92 million subscriptions have been uploaded to VNeID. Over 800,000 numbers have been identified by users as not being in use.

At this stage, data is still incomplete and many users have yet to confirm their subscription status. The nationwide review process will continue until June 15, meaning there is not yet a final figure.

Importantly, the 2023 standardization process only ensured that subscriber information matched valid identification documents, meaning each active number is linked to a real individual. However, it did not guarantee that the registered individual is the actual user.

To address this gap, Circular 08 introduces additional measures such as facial recognition and user confirmation via VNeID to ensure true ownership.

According to Nguyen Anh Cuong, about 91.3% of mobile subscriptions in Vietnam are currently using smartphones.

Thai Khang