Of the over 170 million SIMs circulating in the country, only 3.415 million have been registered as of the second day.
As of Wednesday night, Dec. 28, Globe Telecom Inc. registered 1,769,374 SIMs out of its 88 million users; Smart Communications Inc. registered 1,019,207 out of 68 million; and DITO Telecommunity Corp. registered 625,535 out of 15 million.
Existing SIM users still have four months to register their cards before they are deactivated.
But new SIM users have to register their cards to activate call, text and data services.
Glitches marred the first day of the mandatory SIM registration as Globe and Smart's portals went offline after being swamped by users and threatened with security issues.
Even DITO fended off external malware and hacking attacks, according to its report to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)
But overall, the newest telco player described its SIM registration process as "successful".
Also, its process is different from Globe and Smart because the registration is done directly within the DITO app.
"No need to go to an outside site, so it's more secure. We didn't have as much problems," officials noted.
The NTC ordered the three telcos to submit a daily written report on anomalies regarding their SIM card registration processes for seven days, starting yesterday, December 28.
Anyway, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) expected glitches to occur in the first two weeks of SIM registration, considered as a “test period".
Globe’s SIM registration portal, https://new.globe.com.ph/simreg, went back up early Wednesday after technical teams worked round the clock to address potential minor vulnerabilities found in the system.
“Our SIM registration platform is back up and running, and we’re happy to report that our customers are logging in to register," says Yoly Crisanto, Globe Group Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer.
"We shall continue to closely monitor the site’s performance using the 72-hour window from December 27 to check the stability and full optimization of the system,” she added.
Registration via the Globe One app will begin by January 2023, while on-site assisted registration will start in February 2023 for Globe customers facing challenges using digital or online platforms, using feature or basic phones, or have no internet access.
“Glitches and birth pains are common during the initial stages of implementing new systems," according to Cathy Yang, PLDT and Smart group corporate communications head.
"We continue to optimize our SIM registration platform to mitigate future incidents," she added.
"We are likewise confident that we will be able to accommodate the registration of all existing subscribers within the deadline set by the law and the implementing rules and regulations."
“Our postpaid subscribers were able to receive their registration confirmation within 2 minutes," Atty. Kenneth Regañon, Smart regulatory affairs senior manager, stated In his report to the NTC.
However, "Some of our prepaid subscribers may have experienced initial difficulties in accessing our portal and in completing the registration process due to the heavy volume of registration traffic throughout the day,” he acknowledged.
“As early as 3 am, subscribers were already trying to register and access our portal. To address this surge, we immediately increased the capacity of our portal, without going offline, enabling the registration of more subscribers,” according to Regañon.
New and existing Smart and TNT prepaid subscribers can access Smart’s SIM registration portal through smart.com.ph/simreg, while postpaid subscribers can simply text YES to 5858 to confirm their registration.