SIM card sales went down amid mandatory registration —DICT chief

The number of SIM cards being sold in the market went down following the implementation of the mandatory SIM card registration law, Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ivan Uy said Tuesday.

"Since nag-announce tayo nito, bumagsak ang bentahan ng SIM Cards dahil dati itong mga scammers, itong mga sindikato, bili nang bili ng SIM card tapos tapon," Uy said at a Palace press briefing.

(Since we announced this, the sale of SIM Cards went down because scammers, syndicates, they usually purchase SIM Cards and then they just throw them.)

"Ngayon alam nilang 'di na nila magagawa 'yun so bumagsak ang bentahan ng SIM Cards, which we anticipated that will happen," Uy added, without providing numbers.

(Now, they know they could no longer do that so the number of SIM cards getting sold went down as we anticipated would happen.)

According to Uy, fewer SIM cards will be sold after the registration period ends.

"In terms of local population, the sales will be very, very small once this happens," Uy said.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology earlier said over 12% of SIM cards across the country have been registered with telecommunications firms as of January 15, 2023.

Citing data from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the DICT said a total of 20,551,294 SIMs have been registered, translating to 12.16% of the 168.977 million subscribers nationwide.

The IRR of the SIM Card Registration Act took effect on December 27, mandating all public telecommunications entities (PTEs) to establish their own registration platform where they will onboard users who present valid identification cards.

Users are given 180 days to register their SIM cards, else face the risk of having these deactivated. —KBK, GMA Integrated News