Communications (Philippines Market)

• Philippines

Chronicle

2023: Philippines cuts 54 million unregistered SIM cards

At the end of July 2023, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) announced that over 54 million unregistered SIM cards were deactivated in the Philippines. Their owners cannot make phone calls, exchange messages and upload data.

As of July 30, 2023, 113 969 014 SIM cards were registered in the Philippines. This represents approximately 67.83% of the total number of cellular network subscribers in the country served by three telecommunications service providers - Smart Communications, Globe Telecom and Dito Telecommunications. In December 2022, there were 168 016 400 users of mobile services in the Philippines.

Over 54 million unregistered SIM cards deactivated in the Philippines

By the end of July 2023, Smart Communications reportedly had 52,500,870 registered SIM cards, or 79.18% of 66,304,761 subscribers. Globe Telecom registered 53,727,798 SIM cards, which corresponds to 61.94% of the total number of customers - 86,746,672. Dito Telecommunications has 7,740,346 SIM cards registered, or 51.72 percent of 14,964,967 subscribers.

Mandatory registration of SIM cards is provided for by a law that Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. signed on October 10, 2022. The document is aimed at stopping cybercriminal activities, such as "mixing" - a type of phishing via SMS: the purpose of attackers is to lure out important personal information from the victim, most often this is an Internet bank password or bank card information.

Initially, subscribers in the Philippines were required to register SIM cards until April 26, 2023, but then the terms were extended until July 25 of the same year. Deactivated SIM cards will be considered "dead" - users will have to buy and register new SIM cards to access mobile services.^[1]

Notes