The Department of Information and Communications Technology on Wednesday said the 90 more days given to those who have not yet registered their Subscriber Identity Module or SIM cards would be the final extension and urged them to avail themselves of it right away.
DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy stressed in an interview on Super Radyo dzBB that the law did not give them another extension.
SIM is a removable card inside a cell phone that stores data unique to the user as an identification number, passwords, phone numbers, and messages.
On Tuesday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved the 90-day extension of the SIM registration period or until July 25 from the original deadline of April 26.
A total of 87,442,982 or 52.04 percent of the total 168,016,400 subscriber base nationwide have registered their SIMs as of April 24, 2023, officials said.
Uy reiterated the government was looking to register 70 percent of the total subscriber base to capture the “legitimate” SIM users.
“At 70 percent, we’re looking at 100 million to 110 million legitimate SIM users. We’re now at 82 million registered,” Uy said.
The DICT chief said telcos have upgraded their systems so it would not be difficult for the public to register.
He also reminded the public that barangay IDs could be used to register SIM cards as some individuals do not possess any government IDs.
Uy warned that scammers might take advantage of the 90-day SIM registration extension.
He said the DICT would gradually deactivate some SIM services such as access to social media accounts and loss of ability to make outgoing calls as the 90-day additional registration period moves forward.
Earlier on, Uy defended the gradual deactivation of unregistered SIMs.
At the sidelines of a DICT event, Uy said there was a need to slowly reduce the services of SIM cards that have not been registered during the 90-day extension of the SIM registration which begins today, Thursday.
There has been a suggestion to stop the outgoing calls of unregistered SIMs after the 30th day of extension or disallow a SIM from connecting to a particular app like Tiktok or Facebook.
Uy called this an unorthodox approach so subscribers would feel the need to register immediately.
Some netizens, however, are not happy with this plan, saying some of those who have yet to register are not simply lazy, but lack requirements like Ids.
They added since the registration was extended by the government, it is not right to reduce the services of a paying subscriber.
Telco giant Smart said there might be challenges in limiting the services of a particular SIM.
Cathy Yang, First Vice President and Head of Group Corporate Communications at PLDT and Smart, said: “With regard to the gradual deactivation being evaluated by the DICT, the discussions among the DICT, the NTC, and the mobile network operators are still ongoing.
“Our initial assessment is that it would be difficult for us to implement due to time constraints.”