More than 11 million cellular phone owners have registered their SIM cards in six days of the implementation of the SIM Card registration Act, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) reported on Monday.
Data released by the NTC showed there were 11,219,722 SIM cards registered as of January 2, 2023, broken down as 1,017,012 with DITO Telecommunity Corp., 5,030,649 with Globe Telecom Inc., and 5,172,061 with Smart Communications Inc.
The new law which took effect last Dec. 27 of the SIM Card Registration Act took effect on December 27, mandates all public telecommunications entities (PTEs) to establish their own registration platform where they will accommodate users who present valid identification cards. Users are given 180 days to register their SIM cards, else face the risk of having these deactivated.
The PTEs have said they were set for the registration process, but birth pains as expected cropped up during the initial stages. The NTC has since ordered the PTEs to report any problems encountered by users during the registration.
On Day One of the registration, Globe made its registration portal temporarily inaccessible to ensure a better experience for its customers, asking the NTC for a maximum of 72 hours to ensure stability.
Smart likewise reported heavy volumes of registrants, while DITO said the registration process was smooth with over 200,000 subscribers successfully registered during the day.
To register their SIM cards, users of DITO Telecommunity Corp. can visit https://dito.ph/registerDITO, Globe Telecom Inc. at https://new.globe.com.ph/simreg, and Smart at https://smart.com.ph/simreg.