The Philippines’ ICT regulator reportedly said it held crunch talks with operators today (April 24) to potentially extend its hard SIM registration deadline of April 26, which could see over half of total subscribers cut off from connectivity services.
The Manila Times reported, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) secretary Ivan John Uy said in a radio interview over the weekend: "We will meet on Monday to get the statistics on how many subscribers have yet to register. We will identify the real problem of why some still have failed to register.
“If we would just extend the deadline without identifying the gap, then the extension will not be effective. The problem should be studied carefully."
DICT was firm in its stance over any extension to its April 26 deadline despite appeals from the country’s operators Smart, Globe and Dito.
PLDT and Smart FVP and group head for corporate communications Cathy Yang said previously other nations such as Indonesia and India that rolled out SIM registration took years to register all SIM cards.
On April 20, PLDT revealed it registered over half of Smart subscribers, and Globe had recorded over a third of its total base.