At least 20 million active sim card users have registered following the April 2023 deadline and the release of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the SIM Card Registration Act, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan Uy said yesterday.
Uy, in a briefing following a Cabinet cluster meeting with President Marcos Jr. in Malacanang, said he expects this number to continue to increase and may even reach 60 million to 80 million by April.
He said there are an estimated 140 million to 150 million SIMs that are currently in the market but some of them are not active.
“With regard to the SIM card registration, the recent report I received, is we have more than 20 million already registered SIM card users. We are roughly one month from the implementation–from the release of the implementing rules and regulations and we’ve already achieved more than 20 million registration,” he said.
Postpaid SIM users are registered through their telecommunication provider while prepaid users need to register their SIM or they will be deactivated come April.
Uy said while the registration is “progressing very, very fast,” there are still some challenges that is now being addressed by DICT such as lack of Wi-Fi connection or the low to no mobile or data reception in some remote areas around the country, the lack of identification cards (IDs) of some individuals; and the drop in sales of SIM packs including those that are at risk of expiring if they are not bough, activated and registered.
He said DICT has launched a SIM card registration caravan that will serve the far-flung communities, with the first batch sent to Ifugao and Mountain Province last week.
He said three-day SIM card registration will soon be held, starting January 25, in far-flung areas in the Ilocos Region, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Northern Mindanao and Davao Region, as well as in provinces of Ilocos Norte, Cebu, Leyte, Bukidnon, and Davao del Sur.
DICT will release a list of the sites and dates where and when the caravans are deployed.
Uy said DICT is also looking at coordinating with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to hold simultaneous SIM card and the National ID system registrations in remote areas.
The President in October 2022 signed the SIM Card Registration Act that requires Filipinos to register their SIM cards in a move to help curb scams and other crimes.
