The Philippines’ telecoms regulator revealed over 100 million SIM cards have been registered since the country-mandated SIM registration programme, in a bid to tackle cyber-crime as the Philippines connects more citizens to the internet.
In a translated statement, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) stated 100,263,627 SIMs were registered as of June 22. The Philippines has a subscriber base of over 168 million
Smart Communications had the highest volume of registration with 47,369,051, followed by Globe Telecom with 45,959,017, and DITO with 6,935,559.
DICT secretary Ivan John Uy said citizens can now register their SIM cards on the eGov Philippines super app which is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. By registering SIM cards subscribers will be safeguarding themselves from text scams and nefarious activities from cyber criminals, said Uy.
DICT initially set its deadline to April 26 but was forced to extend it to July 25 with the aim of registering 96% of SIM cards. Uy admitted in a radio interview in April that achieving a 100% registration rate appeared unlikely as they registered 96 million in mid-May.