Thailand to roll out biometric checks for SIM cards
nationwide
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[November 06, 2017]
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand
will introduce biometric checks nationwide for mobile telephone users to
register their SIM cards from Dec. 15, the telecoms regulator said on
Monday, in a bid to stamp out fraudulent electronic transactions.
The new rules require users to either have their fingerprints verified
or their faces scanned.
The regulator first launched the system in June in Thailand's troubled
south where a separatist insurgency has persisted for more than a
decade, killing more than 6,500 people since 2004.
Officials say insurgents in the largely ethnic Malay Muslim provinces of
Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat have used pre-paid SIM cards to trigger
bombs.
Biometric registration in the south was adopted for national security
reasons but elsewhere in Thailand it is aimed at mobile banking
security, regulatory official Takorn Tantasith
told a news conference on Monday.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Nov/06/images/ads/current/beason_ag_sda_030614.png)
"This is not aimed at tracking users, but enhancing security, especially
in case of mobile payments," said Takorn, the secretary-general of the
National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.
Similar biometric systems are already in use in Bangladesh, Pakistan and
Saudi Arabia.
From Dec. 15, Thais will be required to register new SIM cards, both
pre-paid and post-paid, at service centers and retailers across the
country, which will be equipped with biometric tools, he added.
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![](../images/110617pics/busine13.jpg)
A woman use her mobile phone as she visits a temple to celebrate
Chinese New Year in Nonthaburi province, on the outskirts of
Bangkok, Thailand February 8, 2016. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Nov/06/images/ads/current/dd_lda_FFARM_2017.png)
SIM cards for post-paid accounts are now registered on purchase, while pre-paid
SIM cards can be bought with no identification.
To register a new SIM card, users' fingerprints will be matched against the data
stored on their national identification cards, identical to that in the
government's central citizen database, Takorn said.
Mobile operators will shoulder the cost of card readers, which range from 500
baht ($15) to 9,000 baht ($271), he added.
The verification process might alternatively involve facial scans, depending on
the equipment available.
After verification, service centers will send users' data to mobile operators
for record-keeping, without storing any information on-site, Takorn said.
Foreigners buying SIM cards in Thailand will have their faces scanned and
matched against their passport photographs.
(Reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and
Clarence Fernandez)
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