THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is looking into “gradually” deactivating some services of unregistered SIM cards during the 90-day registration extension.
DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy said they will observe the rate of registration within the extension period and may start deactivating some services on unregistered SIM cards “30 days or 60 days into registration.”
"Let's say after 60 days, you will lose your access to your Facebook accounts or your TikTok accounts. You can still use your phone, you can still call, you can still text and then after a certain period, you will lose your outgoing calls so that way, ramdam niyo kung ano effect na di kayo nagpaparehistro," he said.
Uy said they are also exploring available options to incentivize those registering their SIM cards in order for the public to take the deadline more seriously.
He said the lack of government-issued identification documents or the down times of the registration system are not really the problem that was raised by the telecommunication companies but “it’s just our bad habit of delaying to the last minute.”
Uy said IDs issued by barangays are acceptable for SIM registration and telco companies have already upgraded their systems.
“This is the last chance. The law actually has our hands tied. We are only allowed to do this extension once and up to a certain period of time,” he said.
In the next 90 days, Uy said they will be concentrating on having subscribers from the far-flung communities register.
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said as of April 24, 87.44 million, or 52.04 percent of the 168 million total SIM cards that are active, had already been registered. (SunStar Philippines)