AT A GLANCE
- DICT estimated that up to 55 million Subscriber Identity Modules (SIM) cards have been deactivated after the extended SIM registration officially ended on July 25.
- Unregistered SIMs are given a five-day grace period for reactivation.
- Latest data from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) showed that the SIM registrants reached 105,917,844.
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy on Wednesday, July 26 estimated that a total of 55 million Subscriber Identity Modules (SIM) cards have been deactivated after the extended SIM registration officially ended.
Photo credit to Pixabay
“The others that are no longer active as of today are the SIMs that we called ‘active but are non-revenue generating’, meaning this were SIMs that either was used only once or perhaps twice. And then it wasn’t being used anymore,” Uy said in an interview with ANC.
“So, those are the ones that have been deactivated already. About 50 million, 50, 55 million,” Uy added.
Uy explained that users who missed the deadline lost total connectivity in calls, data, and e-wallets.
“They cannot make any calls. They cannot receive any calls. They lose all access to their data and their e-wallets,” the DICT chief said.
5-day grace period
Meanwhile, Uy emphasized that unregistered SIMs “will still be able to receive SMS (short message service) and this is because they are given a grace period of five days in order to still catch up on what they failed to do in the past several months in registering their phones [SIM].”
Uy also pointed out that within five days, users may still reactivate their unregistered SIMs.
“Within the five days, they can still recover their own number,” he added.
However, he clarified that the five-day grace period is not an extension but a time to reactivate.
“It’s not an extension because they are already been cut off as of last night,” Uy noted. “So they are cut off, and they are given a five-day grace period to reactivate their phones,” he stressed.
Reactivation process
Uy explained that unregistered users who still want to register their SIM cards need to “communicate or contact” their telecommunication (telco) providers to reactivate their deactivated SIMs.
“Some of them will still receive an SMS during those five days, just to tell them, ‘Hey, you haven’t registered your SIM card, and you only have just remaining five days to reactivate your SIM cards and failure to do so, will result in permanent inability anymore to recover your number,” Uy added.
SIM registration update
As of July 24, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said the total SIM registrants reached 105,917,844.
Globe Telecom, Inc. recorded 48,378,674 registrants; Smart Communications Inc. with 49,990,446; and 7,548,724 for DITO Telecommunity Corporation. (Sonny Daanoy)
