MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) reports that over 11 million SIM cards have been registered within six days from the start of SIM card registration.
The ICT agency cited data from the National Telecommunications Commission( NTC), where a total of 11,219,722 SIMs were recorded as registered within the six-day period starting December 27, 2022.
Of the 11.2 million total, Smart Communications tallied a total of 5,172,061 registered SIMs, Globe Telecom Inc. with 5,030,640, and DITO Telecommunity Corp. with 1,017,012.
SIM card registration hitches expected within the first weeks
As mandated by the SIM card registration act, telecommunication companies released their registration portals to subscribers on December 27, 2022.
However, the start of SIM card registration was not without any issues due to the high volume of users.
DICT assures that the issues met by users will only persist for two weeks.
“The first two weeks will be a test registration. Which means registrations are valid, but there could be some difficulties and minor errors as the implementation process is finetuned,” DICT Undersecretary Anna Mae Lamentillo said.
Meanwhile, telco representatives told the public they would continue to improve their registration and verification processes.
“Let us remember that this process that we are doing is, I call it, evolving and continuously improving,” said Dito chief administrative officer Adel Tamano.
Scam messages prominent during registration period
Telcos warn the public of scammers using the 180-day registration period to trick people, asking them to provide personal information. Subscribers are, therefore, advised against clicking links from unofficial and unknown numbers.
One example is a fake Gcash email sent to users, which contains a phishing link. A Gcash user shared their experience on Facebook, saying the email claimed their account was restricted due to the SIM registration.
The link asked for their mobile number linked to their Gcash account and the One-Time-Pin (OTP) sent to their phone. These are data needed by hackers to access an account.
Have you registered your SIM yet? Check out the step-by-step guides for different SIMs below:
- STEP BY STEP GUIDE: TM SIM Card Registration for the SIM Card Registration Act
- STEP BY STEP GUIDE: Globe SIM Card Registration for the SIM Card Registration Act
- STEP BY STEP GUIDE: Smart SIM Card Registration for the SIM Card Registration
- STEP BY STEP GUIDE: TNT SIM Card Registration for the SIM Card Registration
- STEP BY STEP GUIDE: DITO SIM Card Registration for the SIM Card Registration Act
– WhatALife!
Also read: Scam emails spread amidst SIM registration
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