DICT: PH registers almost 10% of SIM cards as of Jan. 9, 2023

Published January 09, 2023 05:30 PM By JON VIKTOR D. CABUENAS,GMA Integrated News

Nearly 10% of the SIM cards across the country have been registered with their respective telecommunications firms as of Monday, January 9, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) reported.

Citing data from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the DICT said a total of 16,150,926 SIM cards were registered as of January 9, translating to 9.56% of the 170 million SIMs nationwide.

Broken down, Smart Communications Inc. recorded 7.584 million registered SIM cards, Globe Telecom Inc. with 7.137 million, and DITO Telecommunity Corp. with 1.428 million.

The IRR of the SIM Card Registration Act took effect on December 27, mandating all public telecommunications entities (PTEs) to establish their registration platform where they will onboard users who present valid identification cards. Users are given 180 days to register their SIM cards, or else face the risk of having these deactivated.

PTEs earlier said they were all set for the registration process

, but birthing pains are expected during the initial stages. The NTC has since ordered them to report any problems encountered by users during the registration.

“We encourage all SIM subscribers who have not yet registered their SIMs to register already with their PTEs to ensure that their SIMs won’t be deactivated,” DICT Spokesperson Anna Mae Lamentillo said in a statement.

“We also remind everyone to register only through the official platforms provided by the PTEs,” she added.

To register 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. —NB, GMA Integrated News

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