With barely 30 days left before the SIM Registration deadline, only 26.75 percent, or roughly 45.2 million SIMs are registered so far (as of March 14).
The SIM Registration law or RA 11934 mandates all SIM card users, both existing and new, to register their SIM cards with their respective telecommunications providers by April 26, 2023. The law aims to prevent the misuse of SIM cards for illegal activities such as fraud, identity theft, cybercrime, and terrorism.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) have been urging public telecommunication entities (PTEs) to boost their efforts to increase the numbers, and so far they have responded.
Today, we’re going to take a look at what Smart and Globe have been doing with regard to SIM registration, and highlight some of the key differences between the two.
For more information about SIM Registration, go here. For details on how to register your SIMs, go here.
SIM Registration Portals
Smart, Globe, and DITO have launched their respective portals on December 27, 2022, to allow their subscribers to register their SIMs.
Smart was first out of the gate, opening its portal in record time. Globe followed with its own portal, also on the same day. The launch was not perfect, as both telcos initially struggled to handle the deluge of registrants from the total 168.98 million strong SIMs in the country.
The SIM registration process is similar for the telcos. For prepaid, subscribers are asked to visit their respective portals, input their information, and upload a selfie and a valid ID (for the list of accepted valid IDs, go here). Once confirmed, customers will receive an SMS notification once SIM registration is successful.
- SMART: simreg.smart.com.ph
- GLOBE: new.globe.com.ph/simreg or via GlobeOne App
- DITO: https://digital.dito.ph/pto/download/app
For postpaid, Smart subscribers need to text YES and send to 5858 to confirm their information while at the same time giving permission to the telco to submit their details in the database for the sake of data privacy.
Moreover, Smart boasts of maximum security measures it has implemented since the start of the SIM registration process to protect customer data and information.
As an added bonus, Smart is also giving its subscribers (both postpaid and prepaid) free 3GB of data once the SIM is successfully registered. You will only get the free data once Smart has verified and approved the information you submitted.
See also: What happens if you fail to register your SIM card?
For Globe, postpaid subscribers are automatically registered and added to the database. The telco will contact them should they require further information to align the registration details.
Information Drive & SIM Registration Booths
Both Smart and Globe are not remiss when it came to informing their customers to register their SIM cards. The telcos have reminded users to register their SIMs regularly in their various channels.
They have also participated in DICT and NTC’s 3-day SIM registration roadshow to help remote regions in Visayas and Mindanao with limited connectivity.
Smart takes it up a notch by going out to reach more customers. The telco has deployed multiple assisted SIM registration booths in SM Supermalls and Robinsons Malls nationwide to help those who have difficulties in registering their SIMs, especially senior citizens and those with feature phones. Recently, they also set up booths in select SM Cyberzones.
In the meantime, Globe has been busy with its own assisted SIM registration hubs deployed nationwide. It also held information drives during festivals such as the Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City.
SIMs Registered So Far
The DICT reports that only 26.75 percent or roughly 45,203,504 SIMs are registered as of March 14, 2023.
Of that total, Smart has registered 23,095,598, or 33.97 percent of its 67,995,734 subscribers. Globe, on the other hand, has registered 18,696,485 or 21.28 percent of its 87,873,936 subscribers. And lastly, DITO has registered 3,411,421 or 26.03 percent of its 13,108,103 subscribers.
And while the numbers are impressive and their efforts commendable, it’s still a long way to go to reach even just 50 percent of the total SIMs in the country.
SIM Registration Updates
As for other updates related to SIM registration, the DICT has been considering extending the deadline due to the low turnout of registered SIMs. For now, the April 26, 2023 deadline still stands.
The agency does not expect 100 percent of all SIMs to be registered, as some will likely allow their SIMs to deactivate, either because it’s an extra SIM or otherwise. The telcos also expect their SIM totals to drop for the same reason.
Meanwhile, the Philippine government welcomes the report that text scam complaints dropped 93.3 percent after the implementation of the SIM Card Registration Act. According to the NTC, complaints related to text scams went down to 100 per day from 1,500 complaints prior to the effectiveness of the law.
See also: TCI: Mobile number porting increases following SIM registration
For concerns regarding SIM registration, you can call DICT’s 24/7 complaint center hotline by dialing 1326.
Image: PublicDomainPictures (Pixabay)
