By Prince Golez
The Department of Information and Technology (DICT) expects a drop in the sales of SIM cards with the implementation of the SIM card registration law.
In a press briefing Tuesday, DICT Secretary Ivan Uy said over 20 million mobile users have already registered their SIM cards.
“On the commercial side, yung mga resellers, yung mga distributors ng SIM cards, since nag-announce tayo nito, bumagsak ang bentahan nila ng SIM cards. Dahil dati, itong mga scammers, iyong nga sindikato, bili ng bili ng SIM cards, tapon, SIM card, tapon. Ngayon di na nila magagawa yan so bumagsak ngayon ang bentahan ng SIM cards, which we actually anticipated that will happen,” he said.
“After this registration, there will be much fewer SIM cards that are going to be sold because there will be no more demand. And most likely, karamihan siguro na mga SIM card binebenta sa mga airports dahil sa mga travelers, foreigners coming in and who will buy their SIM cards. But, in terms of the local population, the sales will be very, very small once this happens,” he added.
Meanwhile, Uy said the government is” on track” in the registration of the estimated over 100 million active SIM cards by April.
“We’ll play it by ear and see how fast we are able to deploy that. The law provides certain adjustments that DICT can make in case there are any gaps or challenges in the implementation of the registration. We have those tools. The law provides us with that discretion,” the secretary also said.
In accordance with the Republic Act No. 11934 or the SIM Registration Act, all new and existing subscribers in the country must register their SIM cards until April 26, 2023.
SIM cards that are not registered within the specified time period will be deactivated automatically.
