Smart encounters heavy volume of SIM card registrants on 1st day

Smart Communications Inc., the mobile communications arm of PLDT Inc., said Tuesday its SIM registration portal encountered challenges on the first day of the implementation of the law.

“We experienced heavy volumes of registrants throughout the day, and while we have increased capacities to handle the initial surge, we continue to optimize our SIM registration platform to better serve more Filipinos,” Smart said in an advisory.

“We are still processing the number of successful registration and we will share as soon as we can,” it said.

Smart is incentivizing successful SIM registrants with free 3-gigabyte data.

Despite the heavy volume of registrants, the telco said that its overall assessment of the first day of SIM registration was “better than expected” as it was “able to stress test our portal.”

“With our current process, which is simple, easy, and secure, we will be able to register all our subscribers in the period provided by the IRR (implementing rules and regulations),” Smart said.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) launched a 24/7 complaint center for SIM registration concerns and issues. 

DICT spokesperson and Undersecretary Anna Mae Lamentillo said the first two weeks of the SIM Registration is “considered a test period wherein some glitches or technical issues are expected as the public telecommunications entities (PTE) fine-tune their respective processes.”

“During this 15-day test period, the PTEs will be able to assess what they need to improve on to make the registration process more efficient and easier for subscribers,” Lamentillo said, adding that this was the reason the DICT launched a 24/7 complaint center.

The complaint center is under the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), an attached agency of the DICT.

Concerns related to SIM registration can be directed to them through hotline 1326.

“We request the public for their patience as this process is new to both the subscribers and the PTEs. We also ask for the public’s cooperation in reporting to the telcos or to the complaint center the difficulties, glitches, or technical issues they experience,” Lamentillo said. -NB, GMA Integrated News