epa05152393 (02/18) Thai dancers use their mobile phones during a break at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, 01 September 2015. Excessive mobile phone usage has been a common global phenomenon in the 21st century, with some studies going as far as to label it an addiction; and with 87.5 million mobile subscriptions among the country's 67.2 million inhabitants, Thailand is no exception. As many users often buy multiple phone numbers, it isn't surprising that the number of mobile phone subscriptions is higher than the country's entire population. Worldwide mobile phone subscriptions in 2018 are expected to reach 4.5 billion due to a notable increase in the number of smart-phone subscriptions in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East/Africa regions. EPA/RUNGROJ YONGRIT PLEASE REFER TO THIS ADVISORY NOTICE (epa05152391) FOR FULL PACKAGE TEXT
BANGKOK: Thailand's telecoms regulator and central bank said they had agreed on steps to improve cybersecurity for electronic transactions via mobile phones as the country pursues a goal to become a cashless society.
A fingerprint scan will be among the measures to be introduced to protect mobile users from scams, and it should be ready for service in December, Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the regulator, told a news conference.
