There are still 139,602,248 unregistered Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards in the Philippines based on the latest tally issued by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
The mandatory registration, which will end on April 26, 2023, seeks to end cybercrimes such as the rampant mobile phishing and text scams. Under the Republic Act No. 11934, also known as the SIM Registration Act, non compliance with the law will result in permanent deactivation of a user’s card.
NTC’s latest data issued on Monday, Feb. 6, showed that only 17.38% or 29,375,525 SIMs were so far registered as of Sunday, Feb. 5. This, out of the 168,977,773 cards nationwide.
It was, however, explained by Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary Anna Mae Lamentillo that they are “not expecting all 168 million subscribers to register their SIMs.”
In order to register, one must provide the following: full name, date of birth, sex, present address, valid identification card, and identification card number. These will then be collected and stored by public telecommunication entities (PTEs).