JAKARTA - The Ministry of Communication and Digital revealed that the number of registrations for face recognition-based biometric SIM cards has reached 10 million customers as of July 21, 2026.
Although the verification of a new phone number no longer uses NIK and KK numbers (NOKK) in full, the Ministry of Komdigi does not see a decrease in the number of purchases of starter cards.
Director General of Digital Ecosystems, Ministry of Komdigi, Edwin Hidayat Abdullah said, the number of sales of starter cards is still stable at 250 to 300 thousand per day.
"The sale of prepaid cards has not decreased, but is stable between 250 to 300 thousand, the same as before full biometrics. But with this figure it is still quite good," said Edwin in the Declaration of Commitment to the Full Implementation of Data-Based Biometric Customer Registration on Thursday, July 23.
In the next one month, the Minister of Communication and Information, Meutya Hafid, targets that the number of biometric registrations can increase by another 10 million customers.
Meutya is optimistic that the target can be achieved with the support of mobile operators. According to him, the additional 10 million registrations are not only from new customers, but also from old customers.
"Hopefully in the next month it can increase by another 10 million. And it is not limited to new numbers," said Meutya.
This acceleration is intended as part of an effort to close the gap in the misuse of mobile numbers that have been used in various digital crimes.
"We see that digital crimes, especially fraud in the financial sector that uses fake mobile numbers or fake identities, are still very rampant. We are trying to reduce this number," said Meutya.
Data from the Financial Transaction Reporting and Analysis Center (PPATK) shows that the turnover of online gambling funds throughout 2025 reached IDR 286.8 trillion.
Meanwhile, the Indonesia Anti-Scam Center (IASC) recorded losses from the public due to fraud reaching IDR 9.1 trillion from more than 432 thousand reports since November 2024 to early 2026.
"In the future, we hope that this implementation can be accelerated again. Therefore, today the government also sees directly the commitment of mobile operators to continue to comply 100% with the Minister's Regulation. The goal is solely to provide convenience and security for the community of mobile service users," he concluded.
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