Secretary Ivan John Uy of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) announced today that the SIM Registration period will be extended for another 90 days. At the same time, PLDT’s wireless unit Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) pledged to make its call for SIM registration stronger by using a multi-platform strategy to reach more subscribers.

“We welcome the 90-day extension of the SIM Registration deadline as discussed by DICT Secretary Uy today. It gives our subscribers more time to comply with the law and register their SIM, and gives telcos like ourselves and the government itself more time to reach more subscribers and campaign for SIM Registration,” according to Cathy Yang, First Vice President and Head of Group Corporate Communications at PLDT and Smart.

“With regards to the gradual deactivation being evaluated by the DICT, the discussions among the DICT, the NTC, and the mobile network operators are still ongoing. Our initial assessment is that it would be difficult for us to implement due to time constraints,” Yang added.

Since December 27 of last year, Smart has been working hard to get the word out through TV, radio, print, billboards, text messages, digital, on-the-ground activities, exclusive data and SMS offers, pre-recorded messages via interactive voice response (IVR), and flash messages.

Customers of Smart and TNT in different parts of the Philippines get these alerts to get them to act before the deadline and keep their SIM cards from being turned off.

Smart has been putting up thousands of assisted SIM Registration booths across the country, working closely with the DICT, the NTC, other mobile operators, and other stakeholders to encourage Filipino mobile users to sign up.

Smart Prepaid and TNT subscribers, both new and old, can still go to PLDT and Smart stores or visit Smart’s SIM registration portal at https://simreg.smart.com.ph. For Postpaid, subscribers are already registered, according to the latest advice from DICT. If a Smart Postpaid customer wants to keep their number out of the SIM Registration database, they can call *888 or *800 for Infinity.

The Subscriber Identity Module Registration Act, or Republic Act No. 11934, says that all SIM users must register their SIMs.