Ministry probes pre-paid phone users information

Staff from mobile service provider Vinaphone instruct clients on how to use their services. —VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Giang

HA NOI — The Public Security Ministry has started to check the personal information of mobile phone owners who use Ha Noi- Police-issued identity cards for their pre-paid subscriptions.

Checks in HCM City and Da Nang will follow.

The checks were necessary because numerous violations were still occurring two years after regulations for the management of pre-paid subscriptions had been introduced, said the deputy director of the ministry's administration of social order department Nguyen Cong Son.

Many pre-paid mobile phone subscribers used the services to harass others; detonate explosives or illegally plug into other people's networks, he told a workshop to review mobile services.

An example was a pre-paid mobile phone subscriber who used the service in an attempt to detonate a home-made bomb at a pagoda in northern Thai Binh Province last year.

The device did not explode because it was damp.

Warning

Pre-paid mobile phone users found to have registered incorrect personal information would be required to re-register or have their services denied, warned deputy Information and Communications Minister Le Nam Thang.

Subscribers who tried to register incorrect information for negative purposes would be punished and publicly named, he said.

The Information and Communications Ministry's Communications Department deputy director Nguyen Xuan Tru said most of the transgressions occurred when customers bought their phones.

Vendors pre-registered millions of potential customers to entice them into making their purchases.

The most common transgression was not saving customer registrations or not committing the registration to paper.

Up to 80 per cent of vendors either did not have computers or their computers were not linked to the service provider network.

Information and communication ministry teams have inspected more than 26,000 customer registration points or agents throughout the country and imposed fines totalling VND1.1 billion (US$56,100) during the past two years.

They found 4,821 incomplete but authorised contracts.

The General Statistics Office says Viet Nam had more than 150 million telephone subscribers as of June - 80 per cent of them mobile phone users.

The number of pre-paid mobile phone users accounted for almost 90 per cent of mobile phone subscribers - one-third of them in Ha Noi, HCM City and Da Nang. — VNS

Related Articles

• Japan ICT companies back to Vietnam for business
• Workshop calls for longer-term plans to audit State entities
• Early warning system on anti-dumping cases kicks off
• GDP accelerates to 6.52% in three quarters
• ASEAN role sought to resolve temple conflict

Checks of pre-paid subscribers planned

HA NOI - The Public Securities Ministry plans to check the personal information of pre-paid mobile phone subscribers who use Ha Noi- Police-issued identity cards.

Checks in HCM City and Da Nang will follow.

The checks were necessary because numerous violations were still occurring two years after regulations for the management of pre-paid subscriptions had been introduced, said the deputy director of the ministry's administration of social order department Nguyen Cong Son.

Many people pre-paid mobile phones to harass others; detonate explosives or illegally plug into other people's network, he told a workshop to review mobile services.

Pre-paid mobile phone users found to have registered incorrect personal information would be required to re-register or have their services denied, said deputy Information and Communications Minister El Nam Thang.

Information and communication ministry inspectors have found more than 26,000 customer registrations that included false information and 4,821 incomplete but authorised contracts during the past two years. - VNS

To be updated

Related Articles

• New decree hopes to protect holders of convertible bonds
• Saigon-Hanoi charity caravan heads north
• Good response to reforms of People's Councils
• No haste to abolish grassroots level legislatures: lawmakers
• ADB backs State-owned enterprises reform

Inspectors uncover cache of illegal DVDs

HCM CITY — Inspectors of the HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and city police last Friday discovered a warehouse containing 300,000 illegally printed CDs, VCDs and DVDs in Binh Tan District.

Warehouse keeper Vo Thi Ngoc Lan told the officials that the discs were printed at other places and brought to the warehouse for distribution to various parts of the city

Man fined for mobile phone harassment

HCM CITY— Chung Huu Phuoc, 34, of HCM City's District 6 was fined VND7.6 million (US$400) for using his mobile phone to annoy someone at the office of the Party Central Committee in the south.

The police's investigation showed that between April and June this year, Phuoc used seven telephone numbers and made calls to the office.

However, he said, he intended to disturb a person, not the office.

Enterprises still owe social insurance

HUE — As many as 300 companies in central Thua Thien-Hue Province owed social insurance payment worth VND13 billion (US$690,000) since the beginning of this year.

About 4,500 employers and workers were uninsured.

Province Social Insurance vice director Nguyen Truc Phuong said the problem was due to low fine – VND30 million ($1,500) – applied to violators.

Private clinics join Bluestar network

HCM CITY — Marie Stopes International Viet Nam, a non-profit organisation, on September10 enrolled 17 private healthcare providers in HCM City in its Bluestar social franchising network, raising the network's membership in the city to 48.

The organisation together with the Viet Nam Centre for Reproductive Health pioneered the use of social franchising to provide people greater access to quality reproductive healthcare at a reasonable cost through existing private providers, To Thi Kim Hoa, deputy director of the city Department of Health said.

The four-year initiative had also helped the private health sector improve its quality by helping to develop infrastructure and providing traing in clinical skills, sounselling and marketing, she added.

The network, set up in 2007, has 171 members in Ha Noi, Hai Phong and HCM City and the provinces of Khanh Hoa, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and An Giang. — VNS

Related Articles

• Vietnam inspectors stick to Tamiflu scandal findings
• Vedan deal with Dong Nai settled
• Workshop calls for longer-term plans to audit State entities
• PM sets agenda for insolvent shipbuilder
• Timber-product exporters sign $3b deals

Officials confiscate 2,000 mooncakes

HCM CITY — Market watch officials seized 2,000 moon cakes that did not have proper quality declarations from the producer Son Long Dong Khanh on Wednesday in Binh Chanh District, HCM City.

The officials also discovered 24,000 anti-humidity bags that did not have the proper documentation.

On the same day, the team discovered the producer Tan Do illegally changing the shelf-life designations of their cakes from 30 to 45 days and confiscated 40 cakes that were missing quality certificates.

Moon cakes are popular during Mid-Autumn Festival.

Over 10,000 motorists fined for road offences

HA NOI — Ha Noi Road and Railway Traffic Police issued nearly 11,000 traffic fines totalling VND2.5 billion (US$128,500) in the first week of the month for traffic safety violations.

More than 1,500 motorcyclists were fined for not wearing helmets and 794 citations were issued to drivers who stopped their vehicles in forbidden zones.

The city also reported nine traffic accidents that left nine people dead during the week.

Talk on infectious diseases held in Ha Noi

HA NOI — International and local health experts shared experiences in controlling emerging and re-emerging vector-borne and zoonotic viral infections in Southeast Asia at a workshop in Ha Noi yesterday.

The workshop, held by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and the American National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was a chance for scientists to foster research collaboration and better diagnose, treat and prevent infectious viral diseases like SARS, avian influenza, dengue fever and Japanese encephalitis.

Mobilephone services to be offered in tunnel

HCM CITY —The HCM City People's Committee has approved a plan to cover mobile phone service for vehicles travelling through Thu Thien Tunnel, which was completed on September 2.

The management board of the East-West Highway and Water Environment Project is responsible for selecting an eligible and experienced unit to install a mobile phone communications network for the tunnel.

The network will provide services for users of the city's mobile phone service providers.

Thu Thiem Tunnel, Viet Nam's first built under a river and the longest in Southeast Asia, is 1,500m long.

The six-lane tunnel will link the city's District 1 and 2. — VNS

Related Articles

• Ex-highway project official charged with taking bribe
• Viet Nam, Laos sign trade deal
• Naval forces boost global co-operation
• Civil servants to enjoy State housing
• Decentralisation causes confusion