Around three million subscribers have registered their SIMs since it began on Tuesday, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said Thursday.

In a “Laging Handa” briefing, NTC Deputy Commissioner Jon Paulo Salvahan said:'' Based on the initial data as of yesterday, if we combined the reports submitted to us, that is already around 3.1 or 3.2 million registered subscribers as of the second day.”Salvahan said that 180 days or six months will be enough for all subscribers to register their SIMs.

“I think we have around 160 million to 180 million active SIMs as of late, and the period of 180 days, based on our registration rate which will improve in the later days, I think 180 days will be enough,” Savannah said.

“If not (all SIMs are registered within) that 180-day period, our law provides that it can be extended by 120 days based on the discretion of the DICT,” he added.

For her part, Information and Communication Technology Undersecretary Anna Mae Lamentillo said they received 481 complaints related to SIM card registration.

Of this number, 195 were from Smart users, 14 from Sun Cellular, 83 from Talk and Text, 121 from Globe, 20 from TM, 41 from DITO, and seven from Gomo.

Lamentillo said some complaints were from the elderly who had a hard time with the registration process.

“There are some senior citizens who are having difficulty with the process of registration. We’ve asked someone to assist them," she told the televised briefing.

There are others that are not able to enter the registration system. But we’re asking the public to be a little bit more patient with us because we have a 15-day test period,” she added.

The DICT will be releasing the weekly monitoring of the number of registered subscribers starting in January, she said.

In a separate interview with dzBB, DICT Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center Executive Director Alexander Ramos said the main cause of SIM registration problems was weak internet connection.

“People are still having difficulty. The issue is bandwidth…We detected they have a bandwith problem with their registration online,” Ramos said.

He said subscribers with stronger internet signals, especially those with wired connections, had a higher success rate of registering.

Ramos warned the public to be careful with fake registration links sent through text messages and emails.

“The telcos are the ones who will send (registration links) through their legitimate website. That’s why on our website we have the actual link. That’s all they (subscribers) have to use. They shouldn’t expect that someone will just call them up or send them an email. Avoid this,” Ramos said.

Under the SIM Registration Act, all users are mandated to register their SIMs with their respective telecommunication firms within a 180-day period.

The registration began on December 27 and will end on April 26, 2023.

Failure to register will result in the deactivation of the users’ SIM.

Issues with SIM registration could be reported to DICT's complaint center by calling their hotline at 1326. Jaspearl Tan/DMS