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At the regular press briefing on April 29, 2026, Mr. Nguyễn Anh Cương, Deputy Director of the Telecommunication Department, provided details on Circular No. 08/2026/TT-BKHCN issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology, which guides the verification of mobile subscription information.
Mr. Cương said Circular 08 focuses on two main areas: verifying subscription information and confirming subscription ownership.
This is described as an ongoing, periodic task carried out over the long term. Its purpose is to ensure that when people register new mobile subscriptions, they must provide identity documents and have the information cross-checked with the national population database to confirm that document details are accurate.
Ownership confirmation is intended to ensure that a mobile subscription remains under the rightful owner.
Mr. Cương noted that re-authenticating subscription information and confirming ownership are applied only in cases where subscription information is incorrect, as required by mobile network operators. Examples mentioned include SIMs registered with a 9-digit ID card that need updating to a 12-digit citizen ID, or subscriptions that have not yet been confirmed as belonging to the rightful owner.
Vietnam currently has about 120 million active subscriptions across 10 operators. Mr. Cương emphasized that the current data management priority is to clean the data and ensure each phone number is linked to a valid document, cross-checked against the national population database.
Under Circular 08, with the introduction of VNeID, people can check all subscriptions registered under their name across all operators and choose to accept or refuse using the service.
Under the Telecommunications Law 2023, users are responsible before the law for the phone numbers they have contracted. Ownership verification is intended to help users avoid legal liability in investigations if their numbers are misused.
Mr. Cương also cited preliminary figures from the Administrative Police Department for Public Order (C06) of the Ministry of Public Security: more than 95 million subscriptions have been synchronized to the VNeID system; nearly 900,000 subscriptions have been confirmed as not owned by the account holder; more than 60 million subscriptions have been verified as owned; and about 34 million remain unconfirmed.
He added that the data upload process is not yet complete and many people have not confirmed their status. The ownership confirmation sweep will continue until 15/6, so an exact current figure is not yet available.
Mr. Cương said the ownership sweep under Circular 08 is a transitional provision designed to address issues accumulated over years of development. The approach aims to help people standardize and protect their rightful ownership of subscriptions, and to maximize citizens’ ability to confirm and update information to ensure rightful ownership.
The Ministry of Science and Technology recommends that citizens proactively visit the VNeID app and monitor notices from telecom operators to check and confirm ownership of the numbers shown on VNeID.
It also said proactive verification and management of numbers helps reduce risks, protect user rights, and supports a safer and more transparent telecommunications environment in line with the national digital transformation process.
For vulnerable individuals who do not have a VNeID account, authorities plan to coordinate with local police and telecom operators to provide direct assistance locally, with the goal of ensuring “no one is left behind” during the standardization process.
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