SIM card registration commences today

MANILA — Major telecommunications companies are gearing up for the implementation of the subscriber identity module (SIM) Card Registration Act that will begin today.

“As relayed to us by the different telcos, they are already ready with their systems come tomorrow and then are ready to accept the registration nationwide starting December 27,” National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) Deputy Commissioner Jon Paulo Salvahan’s statement yesterday.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology has admitted that there may be problems in the first two weeks of SIM registration though and telecom companies have promised that they will continue to improve their processes.

According to DITC Undersecretary Anna Mae Lamentillo, the first two weeks will serve as a test registration but it will still be valid even if there is a slight malfunction.

For registration concerns, Smart users can register at https://smart.com.ph/simreg; the users of Globe Telecom Inc. is at https://new.globe.com.ph/simreg, while users of DITO Telecommunity Corp. can register at https://dito.ph/registerDITO.

Globe Telecom Inc. corporate and legal services group head Ariel Tubayan said that all their subscribers can be registered immediately even though the 180-day registration deadline for this has not yet ended.

“Based on our estimate, it is actually technically possible to finish registration of all 87 million Globe subs­cribers in less than 5 days, provided that all these subscribers really register on time and very early, and not wait for the last day of registration,” Tubayan said.

He stated that users can complete the registration process in less than 5 minutes.

However, Tubayan said that some of the possible problems in the implementation of mobile number portability (MNP) where users are allowed to maintain their mobile numbers even with switching networks.

“On the side of DITO, really the big challenge is paano maengganyo ‘yung publiko to register kasi bago ‘to eh, and parang by nature, may kaunting hesitancy ‘yung tao mag-register,” DITO Telecommunity Corp. chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said.

Tamano said that DITO users who registered their SIM cards will be rewarded with 2 gigabytes of mobile data upon completing the forms.

He said they are ready to register SIM cards but the public’s help is needed to make it successful.

PLDT Inc. said and Smart Communications Inc. head of group corporate communications Cathy Yang that their group is ready and they have tested the platform and it is working.

The telcos are also conducting information campaigns to let their users know how to register on their online platforms.