The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is expecting more subscribers to sign up for subscriber identity module (SIM) card registration as the deadline on July 25 approaches.
(SIM card photo from Unsplash)
In a televised public briefing on Tuesday, July 18, NTC Deputy Commissioner Jon Paulo Salvahan said a total of 103,519,000 individuals have registered their SIMs, comprising 61.6 percent of the total number of active sims nationwide.
"We were hoping that it would reach 110 million by July 25," Salvahan said.
Meanwhile, Salvahan said the NTC and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) have discussed that there will be no extension of the registration deadline for active users to register.
He stressed that e-wallets associated with their SIM cards will be momentarily deactivated if they are not yet registered.
However, he made it clear that the loads from their wallets would not be lost even if users forgot to register but rather, "They will just be unable to access it without first registering their SIM card."
Furthermore, he said that there is no limit on the number of SIM registrations of every user, as long as they can provide correct information and a government-issued identification (ID) for verification.
Salvahan reminded everyone to register in order to avoid the "hassle" associated with SIM deactivation. He also assured that this is for everyone’s safety to reduce the number of scams and text messages. (Rhowen Del Rosario)