More than half of Philippine SIMs still unregistered ahead of April 26 deadline —DICT

Data released by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) showed that more than half of the SIMs  (subscriber identity module) across the country have yet to be registered with their respective public telecommunications entities (PTEs) with just three days to go before the deadline.

The DICT data showed that a total of 82,845,397 SIMs were registered as of 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, April 23, 2023. This is equivalent to 49.31% of the 168 million subscriber base nationwide, indicating that the majority has yet to be enrolled ahead of the deadline set on Wednesday, April 26, 2023.

Broken down, Smart Communications Inc. accounted for 39.949 million, Globe Telecom Inc. for 37.099 million, and DITO Telecommunity Corp. for 5.769 million.

Just last Friday, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said the government is not aiming for a 100% registration of SIMs, as some SIMs may not be registered for one reason or another.

The DICT also said that the deadline will remain for now, despite requests from PTEs such as Globe and Smart for customers to have sufficient time to comply with the requirements.

Under the SIM Card Registration Act, all PTEs are mandated to establish their respective registration platforms to onboard users who present valid identification cards.

Users are given 180 days or until April 26, 2023 to register their SIM cards, or else face the risk of having them deactivated.

The implementing rules and regulations of the SIM Card Registration Act took effect on December 27, after the measure was signed into law by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. last October.

PTEs had said they were all set for the registration process, but birthing pains were expected during the initial stages.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has since ordered them to report any problems encountered by users during the registration. —VAL, GMA Integrated News