For the first time in Thailand, both fingerprint and facial recognition software will be used to ensure that people buying SIM cards are correctly identified.

The National Broadcasting and Telecom Commission (NBTC)’s secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said anyone buying a SIM card for their phone in Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces and in the two districts of Na Thawi and Jana in Songkhla will be verified against the government’s central population database.

According to the NBTC, existing users of mobile phone numbers in these provinces will also be required to re-register their SIM cards with operators within 120 days or their numbers will be taken out of |service.

In the next phase of the process, another two districts of Songkhla, Saba Yoi and Thepa, will also be subject to the same requirement.

In practice, new users are required to present their ID cards to operators for verification at the point of service. The ID cards are inserted into a card reader to check the actual identity of buyer against the central population database, which stores electronic photographs and fingerprints of all adults. If the biometric data is not identical, it will not be possible to register a SIM card.

Takorn said an initial 25 card readers and verification software would be installed at various customer service locations of the |five mobile phone operators in affected areas. Another five units |will be used on an experimental basis in Bangkok.

If re-registration is not completed within the 120-day period, SIM cards will be taken out of service temporarily until they are properly |re-registered.

E-registration is also required for people using the PromptPay e-payment service to access government and related welfare schemes.

In later phases, biometric verification will be expanded to cover all pre-paid SIM cards nationwide with a total of 20,000 to 30,000 customer service locations ready in January of the next year. Takorn said the new measure was not a government surveillance programme but a national security measure.