Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan Uy said that 28 million SIM cards have been registered since it began on Dec. 27, 2022.

This is out of around 150 million SIM cards held by subscribers.

Uy said that among the 150 million SIM cards, some prepaid SIMs were only used once but they have yet to identify exactly how many.

“Among the 150 million, there are some who bought prepaid SIMs and only used them once and then just threw them out, especially the telemarketers and scammers. So we currently don’t know how many of the 150 million belong to that category," Uy said.

''Let’s say it’s around 20 million or 30 million. Then the remaining SIMs that need to be registered would be around 120 million,” he added.

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

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

Failure to register will result in the deactivation of the user’s SIM. Jaspearl Tan/DMS