Appointment at 8pm in the Thai village before G time to authenticate subscription

(Dan Tri) - Before the June 15 deadline, when subscribers who have not verified their information are at risk of having their services cut off, telecommunications workers in the mountainous region of Mai Chau (Phu Tho) are entering a race against time.

Knocking on every door in the dark of night

At 8:00 p.m. on June 5, when many families in Mai Chau gathered for dinner, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhu Hoa, a businesswoman who has collaborated with Viettel in the area for many years, started an appointment.

Tonight's destination is the house of Mr. Ha Van Nghien (50 years old) and Mrs. Ha Thi In (72 years old). Both live in the Thai village. They spend all day working in the fields, only when it gets dark do they return home. That is also a rare time for Ms. Hoa to meet customers and support subscriber authentication according to policy.

"Authentication only takes a few minutes, but to meet relatives sometimes takes several days," Ms. Hoa said.

For nearly two months, evenings have become "office hours" for her and many colleagues.

On the second floor of a traditional Thai stilt house, Ms. In sat facing the light while Ms. Hoa used her phone to scan her face for biometric authentication. "She turned her face to the right and blinked away," Ms. Hoa said. In just a few minutes, subscription authentication is completed. Mrs. In excitedly said goodbye to Ms. Hoa.

Ms. In has been using the "official" Viettel mobile phone number for a long time, but she did not know that if she did not authenticate the subscription, this phone number would be locked after June 15.

Similar to Ms. In, Mr. Ha Van Nghien also quickly completed biometric authentication with the support of network staff. He said he once received a notice asking to standardize subscriber information, but because the phone number was registered to the original owner many years ago, he thought it was unrelated to him and ignored the reminder messages.

"Most people here understand that "genuine owner" means that they use it themselves, but do not have the concept of having to authenticate biometrics or synchronize subscription information with their CCCD information. However, when we explained, the people here were very supportive and supportive," Ms. Hoa said.

However, not all customers cooperate so quickly. There are days when network staff have to travel dozens of kilometers to remote villages like Hang Kia and Pa Co. There are even days when they can't return on the same day, so they have to ask to sleep at the village head's house or local people.

Traveling was difficult, but when arriving at the area, network staff encountered people's reservations about online fraud.

"Many people do not answer strange phone calls, do not open the door to strangers. We have to ask the village head or party cell secretary to come along and introduce us so that people can feel secure in cooperating.

What haunts me the most is not the steep mountain passes or convincing people to participate in biometrics, but the times I was chased by ferocious dogs when coming to each household, especially at night," Ms. Hoa said.

Ms. Ha Thi Hue, Viettel employee in charge of Bao La commune, said that authentic support often cannot be completed after just one approach. "There are some villages where I have to return up to 6 times and still have not met a customer," she said.

There are many cases where subscribers work far away, SIMs are registered in the names of relatives, or children under 16 years old use their parents' SIMs. Authentication therefore requires multiple contacts with the guardian.

The house is halfway up the mountain and the man lives alone

In Noong Luong hamlet (Mai Chau, Phu Tho), there is a special telecommunications customer. That is Mr. Ngan Van Tham, Thai ethnicity. Mr. Tham's house is located halfway up the mountain at an altitude of nearly 800m. He lives alone, his relatives all work far away.

Seeing someone coming to his house, he hobbled around with a homemade wooden crutch and one other leg, walking up each step of the stairs. Even though he knew there was a Viettel support team at the cultural house not far away, with his bad legs and lack of help, he still could not complete the protection of his SIM.

The steady sound of loudspeakers broadcasting every morning in Thai did not make him any more impatient, so he had to wait for someone to arrive to assist.

After checking unverified subscribers in the area, on the morning of June 6, Viettel businesswoman Ha Thi Mai went to Mr. Tham's house.

In the quiet stilt house, a single man struggled to find his identification papers. After searching for a while among the wooden walls, he found the citizen identification card that he had kept for a long time. In just about 3 minutes of operation on the phone, Ms. Mai completed the authentication.

"I'm very happy. I read in the newspaper that I had to verify my phone number, but I'm disabled and can't go anywhere. Honestly, I don't know anything about technology," Mr. Tham shared.

Noong Luong is one of the poor hamlets in the area. People mainly live by growing corn and peanuts in the fields. The road from the hamlet to the commune center is dozens of kilometers long and difficult to travel.

According to Ms. Mai, without mobile support teams coming to your place, many elderly people, disabled people, elderly people or people in difficult circumstances will have a hard time completing the procedures on time.

To reach people, in addition to going to each house, she also makes announcements through village Zalo groups, markets and local loudspeaker systems.

Mr. Nguyen Van Nam, Director of Viettel Mai Chau area, said many customers do not answer the phone because they are worried about fraud. To create trust, network operators must coordinate with village heads and local authorities, using community Zalo groups and loudspeaker systems to widely announce.

Due to the characteristics of the mountainous region, most meetings with customers take place in the evening, after people finish their work in the fields.

Race against time, supporting vulnerable customers

Cases like Mr. Tham are not unique.

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Cong, Deputy Director of Personal Customers Viettel Phu Tho, the unit is implementing one of the largest subscriber authentication campaigns ever.

Since April 15, a series of forms of support have been deployed, from gathering points in communes and villages to mobile teams directly reaching each household according to the motto "going to every alley, knocking on every door".

According to statistics, Viettel Phu Tho needs to check and authenticate up to millions of subscribers.

To date, the majority of subscribers have been processed, but there are still hundreds of thousands of phone numbers that need to continue to be authenticated. Among them, 30% of customers belonging to the elderly, disabled, vulnerable or living in remote areas need direct support.

In the Mai Chau area alone, there are still about 8,000 cases of this group.

To complete the goal before June 15, Viettel Phu Tho must support an average of more than 10,000 customers per day.

According to the roadmap of the Ministry of Science and Technology, from June 15, subscribers who do not complete authentication according to regulations will be subject to step-by-step service restriction measures.

According to data from the Ministry of Science and Technology, by early June, the system recorded about 1.6 million phone numbers that users confirmed were "not used by their original owner" on VNeID.

On that basis, telecommunications businesses have announced a request for people directly using these numbers to re-sign contracts and authenticate facial biometrics. In cases of non-compliance, one-way service will be suspended in accordance with the provisions of Circular 08.

However, the biggest challenge today is that there are still nearly 20 million subscribers who have been synchronized to VNeID but whose ownership status has not been confirmed by the people.

In a context where phone numbers have become "digital keys" to access bank accounts, e-wallets, online public services and many other essential platforms, standardizing subscriber information is not only a management requirement but also directly related to the rights of users.

From villages dozens of kilometers away from the center to crowded residential areas, employees of network operators are continuing their journey of knocking on every door to find the final customers.

According to Circular 08/2026/TT-BKHCN issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology, mobile subscribers whose registration information is incomplete, inaccurate, or has not been checked or authenticated with the National Population Database need to standardize information, including personal identification numbers; surname, middle name and first name; day, month, year of birth; facial photo biometric information.

After June 15, users who have not standardized and updated personal information with the network operator will have their services completely terminated and their mobile subscription numbers revoked.

This is an important step to ensure the accuracy and uniformity of subscriber data, minimizing the use of fake information; At the same time, introduce more stringent regulations to manage junk SIMs and protect the rights of users, in order to thoroughly resolve the situation of using junk SIMs or SIMs with incorrect information declared according to regulations.