The national telecom regulator will impose a mandatory online fingerprint ID system for new prepaid and postpaid mobile SIM card customers in the deep South to boost security, according to a highly placed source.
The fingerprint ID system, expected to be launched by June following an order from the Royal Thai Army, will also be applied to all phone numbers not yet registered in the three southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, the source from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) said yesterday.
As part of the system, mobile phone users who travel to the South without contacting their service provider in advance of their trip will have their phone signal cut off as soon as they enter any of those three provinces.
Inbound and outbound mobile calling as well as data services will be unavailable, the source said.
"They will have to call or send an SMS to the call centres asking them to grant permission to make calls in the deep South. If not, their mobile signals will be cut off automatically once they go there," said the source.
The source added the Royal Thai Army issued the order for security reasons. The aim is to avoid the potential use of unregistered phones in detonating bombs remotely in the three southernmost provinces.
"After months of talks between the Royal Thai Army and NBTC, a resolution to apply the use of a mandatory online fingerprint ID system in the three provinces was reached on Feb 21," said the NBTC source who asked not to be named.
The source conceded that the traditional paper-based SIM card registration process was inefficient and fallible.
Through a fingerprint enrolment process, mobile operators will scan each person's fingerprints and store the records on the NBTC's secure database server, the source said.
Mobile operators will develop an application that verifies consumers' fingerprints.
The NBTC will ask all existing mobile users to put their fingerprints in the system on a voluntary basis for the benefit of their own security, with a tentative deadline set for March.
The source said the NBTC believed out of a total of 103 million mobile subscribers in the country, 30% had registered their SIM cards in an improper way such as by using fake ID cards or registering through a proxy.
"We saw a critical need for the fingerprint system in the three provinces for national security," the source said.
The NBTC is giving all mobile operators 30 days to conclude the exact number of mobile SIM cards in the three southernmost provinces that are either unregistered or registered inappropriately.
After that, mobile operators will have to call or a send text message to those mobile numbers urging its users to apply with the fingerprint system within 60 days of receiving notice, or face having their mobile signals cut off, the source added.
"We expect all details of the fingerprint system for the three southernmost border provinces to be settled by July," the source said.
In addition, all mobile users will be urged to participate in the system to ensure greater security especially for those using mobile banking to prevent the risk of fraud, which is likely to increase in a cashless society.
Earlier, the NBTC insisted the fingerprint system will complement the existing registration system. The regulator will not force all mobile users to register with the new system. Some 14 million of Thailand's 103 million mobile subscribers use mobile banking services.
Mobile banking is a service provided by banks or other financial institutions as well as mobile operators that allows customers to conduct some financial transactions remotely using any mobile device, with no bank account required.
An army source in the South, who asked not to be named, said he had not heard about the measure but said if implemented, it would help control and prevent crimes in the areas.