INFORMATION and Communications Secretary Ivan John Uy on Wednesday said that they are seeking to register a little more than 100 million of the 168,016,400 “legitimate” users, meaning that the rest are just “active” subscriber identification modules being used for scams.
In a radio interview, Secretary Uy said that they are targeting the remaining 20 million sim card holders to register during the 90-day extension period.
According to date from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). as of April 24, 2023, a total of 87,442,982 sims have been registered of the 168,016,400 active subscribers.
Smart Communications leads with 41,619,316 of their 66,304,761 or 62.77 percent subscribers registered. Globe Telecoms has 39,894,099 of the 86,746,672 subscriber or 45.99 percent registered. Meanwhile, Dito Telecommunity has 5,929,567 of the 14,964,967 subscribers that have successfully registered or 39.62 percent.
According to the latest data from the National Telecommunications Commission, 87,442,982 Sims of the 168,016,400 have been registered.
“The 52 percent is actually misleading,” Secretary Uy said.
“Base sa datos ng iba ibang bansa na nagkaroon registration. Expected nila ang 70 percent na na-isyu ang actually ginagamit na active. Ang natitirang disposable sims was being used for sims for scams o telemarketing. So, at 70 percent number we are looking 100-110 million sim card and we are now at 82 million,” he said.
Secretary Uy said that the unregistered is at 20 percent.
“They are around 20 million,” he said.
Secretary Uy appealed to the remaining unregistered sim card holders to be responsible citizens and follow the law and register.
He lamented though that due to the extension, the scammers, which have significantly died down will still use the added days to try and scam people anew.
Secretary Uy likewise assessed the initial registration, which was supposed to end on April 26, as “very successful.”
“We expect the remaining unregistered sims to take advantage of the situation. The correct description of the targeted population are legitimate users and they are 100 million up,” he said.
Catherine R. Cueto
