"Junk" SIM cards are still being sold

SGGP 09/14/2023 10:28

To prevent the widespread use of "junk" SIM cards, the Ministry of Information and Communications has just issued regulations tightening the sale of mobile SIM cards at authorized dealers of network operators nationwide from September 10.

Actual observations at SIM card stores in Ho Chi Minh City at noon on September 13 showed that although SIM card sales are not as vibrant as before, it is still not difficult to buy a SIM card.

At a phone accessories store on Hoang Hoa Tham Street (Tan Binh District), the store owner said that the store currently has a few pre-activated SIMs, just need to buy and use. For Viettel network, customers in need can go to Viettel stores and transaction points to buy.

“From now on, we will no longer sell cheap SIM cards because the profit is not high and if we want to sell SIM cards, we have to register them with the customer, which is very time-consuming,” said a Viettel store owner.

Regarding the regulation to stop selling SIM cards at agents, the owners of some stores said that there has been no announcement from the network operator yet, so sales are still going on as usual. “The store is still trying to sell all the pre-activated SIM cards to recover capital. For beautiful SIM numbers and feng shui SIM cards of the network operators Mobifone, Vinaphone, and Vietnamobile, the store will continue to sell until there is an official announcement,” said a store owner on Ba Thang Hai Street (District 10).

In fact, not only is it easy to buy SIM cards in stores, "junk" SIM cards are also sold openly on e-commerce platforms such as Tiki, Lazada, Shopee... A shop on Lazada introduces pre-activated Vietnamobile SIM cards, priced at only 26,000 VND, with "huge" promotional packages such as: 5G data/day, free calls for the first 20 days... Or Mobifone SIM cards cost only 90,000 VND with a series of packages such as 4G data/day, free calls...

Statistics show that, of the 1.5 million SIMs recently sold on the market, up to 80% were issued through the network's authorized dealer channel, 10% were sold directly from the network through transaction stores and 10% through a chain channel including large phone retail systems.

Among them, the dealer channel is considered to be the source of the most unregistered SIM cards. Therefore, strengthening management, inspection, and even imposing heavy penalties to comply with the regulations of the Ministry of Information and Communications is something that needs to be done immediately, contributing to correcting and eliminating the situation of "junk" SIM cards that have been harassing users in recent times.

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