The DICT recently announced that they want to set a limit on the number of SIM card registrations per user. The maximum limit they are considering is 10 registrations.
The goal is to stop the widespread problem of text scams, even though people are required to register their SIM cards.
DICT Undersecretary Alexander Ramos says they found more than 600 registrations under a single name. He says that it’s not normal for someone with a prepaid phone plan to have more than 10 SIM cards registered, unless they are using them for bad purposes.
DICT originally suggested a maximum of five SIM cards, but telco providers agreed to allow up to 10 SIM cards for registration. Ramos wants to make this change happen in a few months, as the agency tries to speed up how data is shared between agencies.
The agency is currently collaborating with telco providers and government agencies like the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), and the National Privacy Commission (NPC) to improve the rules and regulations of the SIM Registration Act.
Ramos said we don’t need to change the SIM registration law because it already has enough protections in place.
As of July 30, the NTC data showed that there were 113.9 million SIM cards registered by the end of the SIM registration period. That’s over half of the total 168 million subscribers across the country in 2022.