NBTC: All SIM cards properly registered

NBTC: All SIM cards properly registered

Some of the SIMs seized from two houses in Aranyaprathet district in Sa Kaeo on Monday. (Photo by Sawat Ketngam)
Some of the SIMs seized from two houses in Aranyaprathet district in Sa Kaeo on Monday. (Photo by Sawat Ketngam)

All 347,000 mobile phone SIM cards seized from three Chinese men in Sa Kaeo last week were properly registered, mainly by retail vendors, with the highest number of SIM cards per user of almost 3,000.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) said on Tuesday almost 60,000 of them were active and the rest expired because they had not been topped up.

Representatives of the three largest mobile operators on Saturday visited Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaeo province to check the SIM cards seized as evidence after authorities raided two houses in the district on June 11.

NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said on Tuesday the operators found the SIM cards had been bought from several locations in Thailand, mainly in the central region and the Northeast, especially Buri Ram.

Of the 347,000 SIM cards in total, 105,485 were of Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS), 6,650 of which were active.

Total Access Communications Plc reported 43,471 of its 104,339 DTAC SIM cards were active.

True Corporation Plc said 9,777 of 105,458 True Move SIM cards were active.

By the number of registered SIMs per user, True led with 2,972, followed by DTAC (500) and AIS (413).

Mr Takorn said the three operators would send the details of the SIMs and the users who registered the most SIMs to police to take further action.

Since there is no limit on the number of SIM cards a person can own, the NBTC would press charges of using telecom devices without a licence against the three suspects, with penalties of imprisonment up to five years or a fine not more than 100,000 baht.

The three Chinese men were arrested in Aranyaprathet district on Monday after police raided one of their houses on suspicion that they were running a call-centre scam. Instead, they found more than 300,000 SIM cards, almost 500 mobile phones and some SIM card readers in the two houses.

The trio claimed they operated a "click farm" by automating the sending of likes and shares for products sold online in China to boost sales. This was done mainly through the instant messaging app WeChat as Facebook is not available in China.

The suspects were initially charged with overstaying their visas, working without permits and using unregistered SIM cards. The latter charge will apparently be dropped now that it was confirmed all the SIM cards had been properly registered.

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