Biometric SIM Registration Success Rate Reaches 83 Percent

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Kemkomdigi) has stated that the success rate for facial biometric verification in the new SIM card registration process has reached 83 per cent since the policy was implemented on 1 July 2026.

Director of Digital Ecosystem Control at Kemkomdigi, Dany Suwardany, said the achievement shows that the majority of customers can complete the registration process using biometric technology without obstacles.

“If we look at the biometric success rate, it reaches 83 per cent,” Dany said during a discussion in South Jakarta on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the verification failure rate was recorded at 17 per cent. According to Dany, most failures occurred because there were still people trying to register new mobile numbers using selfie photos that did not belong to the actual identity owner.

Dany assessed that this situation also demonstrates that the biometric system is capable of detecting and preventing identity misuse in the mobile number registration process.

“So, this is already visible. It means that later, traceability will be possible, for example, when there are people who intend to commit crimes, their true identity can be uncovered,” he said.

Dany also explained that the number of customers registering with biometric verification continues to grow. As of 5 July 2026, the average daily biometric registrations across three mobile operators was recorded at 201,421 users.

Since the transition period began in January until 5 July 2026, approximately 4.9 million customers have registered prepaid SIM cards using facial biometric verification.

The Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Kemkomdigi) has affirmed that all registrations for purchasing new prepaid SIM cards by Indonesian citizens starting from 1 July 2026 will rely solely on biometric verification methods and will no longer use the National Identity Number (NIK).

Director General of Digital Ecosystem at Kemkomdigi, Edwin Abdullah, said this step was taken as a way for the government to protect the public from the practice of registering mobile numbers using other people’s identities, which is often carried out by criminals in cyberspace.

“Starting 1 July, new customer registration must use biometrics. Therefore, we ask all operators to comply with this provision and immediately stop all activations that still use NIK and Family Card number validation without biometric verification,” Edwin said.