August 5, 2023
The Philippines’ SIM card registration period has reached its conclusion, revealing the updated counts of subscribers for the nation’s three leading telecom companies. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) mandated that all mobile users register their SIM cards with their respective service providers by July 25, 2023, or face disconnection.
As reported by the NTC, the total registered SIM cards amounted to 113,969,014 by July 30, 2023 (following the 5-day registration grace period), out of an overall 168,016,400 SIM cards in circulation. This indicates that 67.83% of the country’s SIM cards were registered, with the remaining cards deactivated. The registered subscribers for each telecom company are as follows:
- Smart Communications registered 52,500,870 of its 66,304,761 subscribers, representing 79.18% of its entire user base. Consequently, 13,803,891 Smart SIMs were deactivated after the deadline.
- Globe Telecom registered 53,727,298 of its 86,746,672 subscribers, accounting for 61.94% of its user base. As a result, Globe forfeited 33,019,374 SIMs due to deactivation.
- DITO Telecommunity registered 7,740,346 of its 14,964,967 subscribers, equating to 51.72% of its user base. Subsequently, DITO saw 7,224,621 SIMs deactivated.
The SIM registration policy was adopted to curb the misuse of mobile phones for illegal activities, such as fraud, identity theft, cybercrime, and terrorism. While the policy’s effectiveness in combating text scams remains uncertain, the NTC reported a 93.3% decline in text scam complaints in March 2023.
Moving forward, the NTC will supervise the compliance of telecom companies with the SIM registration policy and other relevant rules and regulations. The agency also encourages the public to cooperate with the policy and report any issues or concerns to their service providers or the DICT’s 24/7 complaint center by dialing 1326.