Major PH telcos Globe and Smart urged the government to extend the SIM registration deadline, which is slated for April 26, 2023.
Globe and Smart each released their respective statements, asking Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to give subscribers more time to comply with the SIM registration law.
In a statement, Globe said that they have seen a low registration turnout "due to the lack of valid government IDs and challenged digital literacy."
Globe said:
Given these issues, we appeal to the government to extend the SIM registration process to give our customers more time to get their required government IDs and input the required information on our site.
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As of April 11, 2023, Globe Telecom recorded only 32 percent or 27.85 million of its total mobile subscriber base.
Smart Communications, likewise, supports the extension of the deadline for SIM card registration.
Smart said:
With the mandatory SIM registration now in place, lack of IDs remains a challenge to those availing mobile communication services. These individuals without valid IDs are at a higher risk of digital, social and financial exclusion, and marginalization as mobile communications may be their only means of accessing online information, financial services, and other social benefits.
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Smart said that only 46 percent of the total number of subscribers have registered.
As of April 10, 2023, DICT said that only 39 percent or 65 million of total subscribers had registered their SIM cards.
Failure to register SIMs before the April 26 deadline would result in the automatic deactivation of mobile services, based on the SIM registration act.
If the extension for the SIM registration deadline is approved, existing mobile users can register their SIMs until August 24, 2023.
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