Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology has brought Circular 08/2026/TT-BKHCN into force as of April 15, 2026, requiring mobile subscribers who change devices to complete facial biometric re-authentication. Carriers are obligated to suspend outbound calls and SMS within two hours when the verification is not completed.
Under the circular, carriers must detect device swaps tied to existing SIM subscriptions and trigger a re-verification flow. If the subscriber does not complete facial authentication within the required window, outbound calls and SMS are suspended within two hours of the trigger event. The subscriber then has 30 days to complete re-authentication before a full two-way service suspension takes effect, followed by contract termination after an additional five days.
Re-verification can be completed through Vietnam’s VNeID national digital identity app, through carrier applications, or in person at telecom service points. The in-person option replaces the existing video-call verification requirement that previously applied to SIM re-registration. Subscribers with a Level-2 VNeID account or those who originally registered using chip-based ID cards are exempt from re-authentication unless they swap devices again after June 15, 2026.
All new mobile subscriptions registered on or after April 15 must complete facial biometric verification cross-checked against Vietnam’s National Resident Database at the point of activation. The circular does not name individual carriers; it applies to all telecom operators in Vietnam, including Viettel, VNPT, and MobiFone.
The circular represents the latest step in a series of identity-to-telecom linkage rules in Vietnam. The country has been targeting universal digital identity access by 2026, and has been tightening the link between mobile service continuity and the VNeID credential as the national rollout scales.
The Ministry of Science and Technology now holds the regulatory authority over telecom subscriber authentication, having absorbed functions from the former Ministry of Information and Communications during Vietnam’s 2025 government restructuring. Enforcement responsibility sits with MoST, while carriers are accountable for implementing the detection, suspension, and re-verification flows in their own systems.
The Vietnamese rule follows a regional pattern of tying SIM issuance and continuity to biometric checks. Thailand previously mandated biometric verification for SIM card registration as part of its own anti-fraud push. Vietnam’s circular extends the logic to the post-registration lifecycle, treating each device change as a moment requiring fresh proof of account ownership rather than treating SIM activation as a one-time identity gate.
Sources: Vietnam News Agency, Saigon Giai Phong
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By the Mobile ID World Editorial Team
