The National Telecommunications Commission on Tuesday said it has reached its SIM registration target with 105.9 million cards registered as of July 24.
The telecom regulator said the figure accounted for 63 percent of the total number of reported active SIM subscribers as of December 2022.
“Such a number is well within the target of between 100 million to 110 million registered SIMs come the deadline, especially considering the report from the public telecommunication entities that almost all of their SIMs with active users have already registered,” the NTC said.
Of the 105.9 registered SIM cards, Smart had 50 million, Globe had 48.4 million and Dito had 7.5 million.
The NTC said there will no longer be any further extension in the deadline to register active SIMs.
Under the implementing rules and regulations of the SIM Registration Act, subscribers still have five days – from July 26 to 30 – to catch up and save their SIM from permanent deactivation.
Globe Telecom Inc. said its subscribers who missed the July 25 deadline have a final grace period of five days to comply with the SIM registration law.
Their incoming SMS is still left active so they could receive a One-Time Pin for SIM registration, Globe said.
“Globe recognizes the essential role of uninterrupted mobile and broadband services in our customers’ daily lives. So, as provided for in the law, SIM users get this last chance to register their SIMs after missing the initial and extended registration deadlines,” said Ernest Cu, Globe Group president and chief executive.
The government extended the original deadline of April 26, 2023 by another 90 days, as allowed under the SIM Registration Act, to give full opportunity to millions of users with still unregistered SIMs.
DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy said he is “satisfied” with the result of the SIM registration.
“Considering the large number of scams I think the bigger percentage of the SIMs are not legitimate, which means that SIM cards were used for telemarketing or scamming. Realistically we are looking at 70 percent,” Uy said.
“We’re expecting between 100 million to 110 million revenue generating
SIM cards. So, at 105 million [registered SIMSs] were right on the dot in terms of our target,” he added.