Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 12) — The country’s major telco players are urging the government to extend the SIM registration deadline as less than half of users have registered with only two weeks left before the target cutoff.
The telcos made the call in separate statements, citing low registration turnout.
Data from the DICT showed Monday that more than 64 million users were already registered out of 168,977,773 SIMs.
On Thursday, new entrant DITO Telecommunity said in a statement that it already submitted a position paper to DICT chief Ivan John Uy, urging the latter to extend the SIM registration process for 120 more days from the original deadline.
It said that while a part of those unregistered subscribers are “inactive or previously involved in fraudulent activities,” there are active subscribers who face difficulty in registering.
Regulators’ failure to heed industry players’ call may result in “disenfranchisement of subscribers that may prove detrimental to the current government initiative,” DITO Telecommunity warned.
Smart, PLDT’s wireless arm, said Wednesday it would file a request with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the National Telecommunications Commission to extend the April 26 deadline.
“We are filing this request to help give ample time to all mobile users, particularly the marginalized sectors and those located in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas of the country, to register their SIMs,” said Cathy Yang, first vice president and head of Group Corporate Communications at PLDT and Smart.
Yang said granting their plea would also allow Filipinos to secure their government IDs required to register their SIMs.
The official said the Pangilinan-led firm is ready to assist the government in ramping up the SIM registration process.
With 46% of its subscribers now registered, Smart’s daily registration numbers have “ballooned” as the deadline nears, Yang said.
Meanwhile, Globe also aired on Tuesday its hope for an extension. It added that while it boosted efforts to encourage users to register through awareness and educational campaigns, it still recorded a low registration count.
Globe attributed this slow uptick to “the lack of valid government IDs, and challenged digital literacy.”
“Given these issues, we appeal to the government to extend the SIM registration process to give our customers more time to get their required government IDs and input the required information on our site,” Globe said.
