Globe Telecom Inc. said Friday it registered 3.34 million SIM cards on July 25 as subscribers rushed to beat the deadline.
Globe attributed this stream of last-minute registrants to its vigorous communications campaign and the support of customers, government regulators and private sector partnerships.
It said that on July 25, the last day of SIM registrations, Globe saw.344 million SIM registrations, with customers rushing to beat the deadline.
The following day, July 26, when deactivations began, 452,997 customers caught up to reactivate their mobile services, while 126,344 more complied on July 27.
Globe said that as of July 27, it logged over 52.302 million SIM registrations or 60 percent of the total 86.75 million subscriber base. This covers Globe Prepaid, Globe Postpaid, Globe Platinum, TM, Globe At Home Prepaid WiFi and Globe Business SIMs.
A Globe survey weeks before the deadline showed that many SIM users knew that they needed to register their SIMs but didn’t have the time to register earlier as they were too busy. This validates the last-minute surge in registrations.
“We were surprised yet happy with the turnout over the seven-month period of SIM registration, as we have been able to cover nearly all our active users,” said Globe Group president and chief executive Ernest Cu.
“We thank our customers for heeding our call for SIM registration via various communications channels- from print, radio, TV, and digital platforms– and our on-ground activations to reach the elderly, PWDs, pregnant women, basic and feature phone users, and those in remote areas,” he said.
“What pulled us through in this huge undertaking was the cooperation among Globe, our government partners and our customers. We hope that our SIM users will continue to comply with the SIM Registration Act and register new SIMs so that they can enjoy our mobile services. After all, this is for everyone’s protection against fraud and other forms of cybercrime,” Cu said.
The grace period for reactivation of unregistered SIMs is until July 30. Globe urges still unregistered SIM users to catch up and comply with the law, as all unregistered SIMs would be permanently deactivated by July 31. Meanwhile, all new SIMs should be registered before mobile and broadband services can be accessed.