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An Anonymous Coward writes:

In November the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) announced the mandate, outlining February 2017 as the deadline for operators to facilitate the ID registration scheme, which was ostensibly created to prevent online fraud and increase security in mobile banking.

Thailand’s existing 106 million mobile users will not be constrained to register their current devices. This effectively gives non-ID SIM usage in Thailand a withering vine of 3-7 years, based on current upgrade patterns and smartphone turnover.

In January of 2016 Saudi Arabia also announced a fingerprint ID registration scheme, which similarly does not include retroactive registration for existing users or devices. According to a report by the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), mobile subscribers dropped by three million to 51 million in the wake of the legislation, under which information on the SIM is shared with the National Information Centre to confirm the authenticity of the buyer during transactions.

https://thestack.com/security/2017/02/01/all-new-thai-sims-will-require-fingerprint-registration-from-march/ [thestack.com]

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