If you own a Vietnamese mobile subscriber and you have not submitted your portrait photo to mobile service provider, your subscriber you will be terminated outgoing call very soon.
According to a government decree effective since April 2017, owners of every mobile subscriber have to provide not only a scanned copy of their ID card but also a portrait photo to legally own a prepaid or post paid subscribers of all Vietnamese mobile carriers. This with the number of affected subscriptions estimated at nearly 120 million.
Mobile network operators had been given 12 months to request their subscribers updating their portraits to the customer profile at the service counter or on the website. But, as per a report of VietnamBiz.vn, there will be more than 30 millions mobile subscribers being impacted and terminated right after April, 2018.
Any user, who does not provide requested information, their mobile subscriber be terminated after 30 days from the first reminder by the service operator.
Mobile service operators have conceded that it is a challenge to encourage existing users to provide a portrait by that time.
The current regulation on telecommunication stipulates that every individual must provide accurate personal information as per ID card to register for a SIM card.
Foreigners are required to provide their passport to complete the registration.
Many experts told us that the portrait regulation is unnecessary and will waste the time of subscribers as well as the resources of mobile carriers.
Warren Cammack, General Manager, Capability Exchange Program of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) at Vietnam International Bank (VIB) said even banks do not demand a portrait of their customers, so it is questionable whether the mobile carriers really need to do so.
From a customer’s perspective, Warren, said it would be a huge waste of time and a nuisance.