Globe said Monday it will roll out assistance desks in over 500 locations across the country to make it easier for customers to register their SIM cards.
Globe together with the National Telecommunications Commission and the Department of Information and Communications Technology launched the National SIM Registration Week, which aims to reach out to customers, especially senior citizens, PWDs, pregnant women, users of basic phones and those with no internet access to make them compliant with the SIM Registration Act before the April 26, 2023 deadline.
“The National SIM Registration Week is a momentous initiative that will bring together Filipinos across the country to register their SIMs and move us closer to our goal of reducing spam and scam text messages, which is the intent of the SIM Registration Act,” Globe consumer mobile business head Darius Delgado said.
“It’s a historic moment for Globe as we endeavor to get closer to our customers through online channels and on-site booths. We encourage our customers to be part of this activity. Together let’s keep the online space safe and secure,” he said.
Globe said that as of Feb. 16, its SIM registration reached 13.62 million of the 86.7 million SIMs under its network.
NTC commissioner Ella Blanca Lopez said 33.3 million subscribers across all public telecommunication entities had successfully registered their SIMs, representing 19.7 percent of the 168 million SIM subscribers as of September 2022.
“It is already the tail end of February and we only have ideally until April 26, 2023 to generate as many successful SIM registration as possible. In the past three weeks the NTC central office and regional offices have worked with various local government agencies , Globe and other telcos in conducting SIM registration in remote areas,” Lopez said.
“As of today we have visited 103 areas all throughout the country,” she said.
DICT Undersecretary Anna Mae Lamentillo said the agency and telcos were working double time to ensure that more SIMs would be registered before the April 26 deadline.
“We are almost halfway into the implementation of the SIM registration, and we have observed a slowdown in the number of registrants. Although we anticipated this lull, we are compelled to do more,” Lamentillo said.
“We must use this as an opportunity to engage more end-users to participate. It is vital that we reinforce our strategies primarily through effective information and education campaigns,” she said.
The SIM Registration Act requires the registration of all SIMs as a major measure against the proliferation of criminal activity, including smishing and other mobile phone and online scams that have spread due to the anonymity of unregistered SIMs.