Telcos unfazed by subscriber loss after SIM registration

Three of the Philippines’ major telecommunications players have brushed off the millions of subscribers they apparently lost after nearly eight months of mandatory SIM registration.

Smart, Globe, and DITO lost an average of 33% of their total active subscribers recorded as of December 2022, based on the National Telecommunications Commission’s (NTC) SIM registration database as of July 30, 2023.

In particular, Smart Communications lost 20.8% of its 66.3 million active subscribers as 52.5 million registered their SIM, accounting for 79.18% of its total subscriber base.

PLDT-Smart president and CEO Alfredo Panlilio, however, said the total number of Smart’s registered subscribers covers over 90% of its revenues.

This was echoed by Smart Communications head of consumer business Francis Flores, saying that “96% of our revenues are covered.”

“We have a higher percentage of those who registered in the total base, a lot more chose us,” Flores said, noting that this would translate for an increase in the average revenue per user (ARPU) for Smart.

Despite losing 30.06% of its total active subscribers, Globe Telecom remained as the dominant telco player with 53.73 million registered subscribers, accounting for 61.94% of its total subscriber base as of end-December last year.

“The number we have on total subscriber registrants is nearly 54 million. This is about 95% of our total active base so impact to revenues is very limited if any,” said Globe Group chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications officer Yoly Crisanto.

New major player DITO Telecommunity, meanwhile, lost 48.3% of its 14.96 million active subscribers following the SIM registration as 7.74 million registered their DITO SIMs.

This accounted for 51.72% of DITO subscriber base as of end-December 2022.

DITO chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said the SIM registration “was a coming out party for us.”

Tamano said that having nearly eight million registered subscribers following its commercial launch over two years ago, in March 2021, “definitely we’re in the run.”

“Although we are a far third… nearly eight million is about 8% of the market,” he said.

In total, 113,969,014 SIMs were registered or 67.83% of the 168,016,400 subscriber base as of December 2022.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology targeted to register between 100 million to 110 million SIMs.

The mandatory registration began on December 27, 2022 and was supposed to end on April 26, 2023.  The DICT allowed the 90-day extension or until July 25 to accommodate more mobile users to register their SIMs.

The SIM Registration Act seeks to end crimes using the platform, including text and online scams, by regulating the sale and use of SIMs through mandating registration to end-users.—AOL, GMA Integrated News