The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) aims to have 70 percent of active subscriber identity module (SIM) cards registered during the recently announced 90-day extension of the SIM registration period, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said on Tuesday, April 25.
SIM cards (Pixabay)
“DICT is targeting to register 70 percent of active SIMs within the 90-day extension and reports to the President that more Filipinos will enjoy social, digital and financial inclusion upon SIM registration,” the PCO said in a statement.
Originally, the deadline for the SIM registration was on Wednesday, April 26, with the DICT reporting that “there has been a sharp increase in the number of daily registrants” in the days leading to the deadline.
But on Tuesday, April 25, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla announced that the deadline has been extended by 90 days, giving active SIM users three more months to have their numbers registered.
“To ramp up SIM registration, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and other relevant government agencies have been conducting facilitated SIM registration in remote areas,” the statement read.
As of April 23, 2023, more than 82 million SIMs have been registered, representing 49.31 percent of total active SIMs as of December 2022.
Currently, there are 168,016,400 total number of active SIMs in the Philippines.
From the 82 million registered SIMs, more than 37 million are Globe subscribers, more than 39 million are Smart subscribers, and more than five million are Dito subscribers.
The SIM Registration Act mandates that all SIMs in the country be registered by Wednesday, April 26, to help eradicate SMS-linked scams.
However, the country's major telecommunication companies lamented the low registration turnout and have requested an extension.
They cited the lack of valid IDs and digital literacy as obstacles.