Carriers will have a policy to support users to switch to 4G devices.

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Phạm Đức Long said that this month was the expiration date for mobile telecommunications service business licences and radio frequency band licences.

After this licence expires, the 900/1800MHz band will no longer be used for the 2G mobile communication system according to the national plan on the radio frequency spectrum.

To promote the transition from feature phones to smartphones, the ministry previously issued a circular regulating all mobile phones manufactured or imported into Việt Nam from July 1, 2021 must be integrated with 4G technology.

Since then, phones using 2G technology have not been imported or manufactured.

In addition, the Deputy Minister said that in order for people to not lose contact, network operators will develop policies to support terminal devices and support charges for customers.

The MIC issued a document guiding the implementation of the roadmap and plan to stop 2G mobile technology on September 27 last year.

In recent times, the ministry has co-ordinated with businesses to deploy solutions to promote the universalisation of smart mobile phones to every citizen, creating conditions for businesses to proactively develop plans to stop using old generation mobile technology 2G to optimise the network, save operating costs and reserve bandwidth for new generation mobile technologies.

Previously, the ministry has worked with representatives of mobile business leaders and agreed on a roadmap to stop 2G mobile technology.

In addition, it also requested businesses to urgently develop detailed plans and deploy the cessation of 2G mobile technology.

In parallel with implementing the plan to stop 2G technology, businesses must ensure the provision of new mobile information services after stopping 2G technology.

At the same time, it can completely replace the 2G technology service provision area to provide continuous, uninterrupted mobile information services.

Stop selling SIM cards through agents from September 10

The ministry also said that the network operators would stop selling SIM cards through agents from September 10 to reduce unauthorised SIM cards.

The ministry said that about 80 per cent of the 1.5 million new SIM cards that have been released to the market recently are issued through agents, only 10 per cent are directly from the network operator, and the rest are through other chain channels such as the phone retail systems.

Accounting for a large proportion of the numbers issued to the market, the agent channel is considered the main source of current non-authoritative SIM cards.

Facing the situation, the ministry’s leaders worked with network operators and requested corrections.

Network operators have committed to stop agent channels from September 10, and can switch to distribution from the other two channels (directly operated by carriers or through reputable large chains), said Long.

In the market for many years, many agents have used unofficial information to register and activate subscribers to take advantage of preferential packages before selling to end consumers. This helps boost sales, but the registered subscribers' information are not actually of the owners.

In a recent review by the end of last month, carriers said that about 8.6 million subscribers were registered on 10 SIMs.

Of which, 3.6 million had come to commit to re-standardise information, the rest includes more than 5 million phone numbers that have been locked one-way, two-way or recovered to the number storage of telecommunications service providers. — VNS