Spam texts to drastically decline with full SIM registration implementation –DICT

The full implementation of the SIM Card Registration Act will significantly reduce the number of spam text messages, a top official of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said Friday.

During state-run PTV’s public briefing, DICT spokesperson and Undersecretary Anna Mae Lamentillo said 27.12% of the total 169,977,773 subscribers had registered their SIMs.

Lamentillo explained that the total number of subscribers exceeded the country’s entire population, and some unregistered SIMs were used for scams and other crimes.

“After ng SIM registration, we will see the legitimate number of SIMs,” she said.

The DICT official said that by April 26, the deadline for SIM registration, unregistered SIMs would be deactivated.

With this, Lamentillo said, “We feel after the law is fully implemented, it [spams] will be drastically reduced, drastically cut.”

“Even now, we are already seeing drastic reduction as far as these spam messages are concerned,” she said.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) earlier said that, since the SIM Registration Law, it observed a drop in text scam-related complaints to 100 from 1,500 daily complaints. 

As of March 11, there are a total of 45,826,171 million subscribers who have successfully registered their SIMs, according to the DICT.

Broken down, Smart Communications has the highest number of SIM registrants at 23,436,060.

Globe Telecom Inc. followed with 18,941,013 SIMs registered, while DITO Telecommunity Corp. recorded 3,449,098 SIM registrations.

The DICT earlier said it planned to give mobile subscribers more time to register their SIMs or subscriber identity modules beyond the April 26 deadline. 

During the briefing, Lamentillo said that the law provides that the DICT can extend the deadline for another 120 days if deemed necessary. — DVM, GMA Integrated News