Five days before the April 26 SIM registration deadline, telecommunication companies are still unable to reach their target to register their subscribers as the lowest number are in the Visayas and Mindanao, the spokesperson of Globe Telecom said Friday.

As of April 19, a total of 75, 564, 837 SIM cards have registered, the Department of Information and Communications Technology said. This accounts for only 44.97 percent of SIM cards.

Globe Group Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer Yoly Crisanto told dzBB: ''Well, I think across the board, the issue we see is really with the ID. The registration of our customers in Visayas and Mindanao is low. I think it’s the presence of government IDs.”

“And the second thing we are looking at is probably digital literacy. Since they need to use online forms, some of them get scared,” she added.

As of April 19, registered Globe subscribers are 33,067,910, DICT said.

PLDT and Smart Corporate Communications First Vice President-Group Head Cathy Yang told dzBB urged the government to extend the SIM registration deadline.

“We continue to ask our government partners for an extended period of 120 days from the April 26 deadline to allow our remaining 44 percent unregistered subscribers to register their SIMs,” Yang said.

Under the 2022 SIM Registration Act, subscribers need to fill up the form and present a government-issued ID with a photo.

The law aims to prevent the spread of scams and data breaches.

Failure to register after the April 26 deadline would lead to the deactivation of one’s SIM.

“We’ve done what we can. We’ve gone out there. Subscribers should approach SIM registration booths and touchpoints so they can be assisted with this challenge,” said Yang.

“And we have subscribers in nearby towns that have a weak signal. So we have challenges that we have bridged by setting up these registration booths and touchpoints in the areas where the need is greatest,” she added.

Yang said 37,028,888 or 55.8 percent of their subscribers have registered their SIM.

Of this number, 35,398,171 are prepaid users while 1,630,717 are postpaid users.

Forty-four percent of Smart and TNT subscribers are unregistered.

Yang said there has been a surge of at least 1,000 subscribers in April compared to the first four months of SIM registration.

“We noticed since April 1, there has been a surge of registrations. Before we just doing 200,00 to 300,000 per day from December 27 to March 32. But in April 1 and during the Holy Week, the registrations are 450,000 per day. And we’re still able to accept that. And it’s been a seamless process,” she told dzBB.

Yang sees a lack of awareness of the registration process and not having government-issued IDs as the main issues that SIM subscribers have.

“You know, the main complaints are about the process itself, on how to register. They could not register online. Most of them still ask what IDs they can use. I think it is also the result of the lack of time for an education and awareness campaign because the government only gave us 121 days,” Yang said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS