The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) in its recent forum says that it plans to put a SIM registration limit with a maximum of 10 per user.

The aim is to resolve the ‘alarming’ cases of text scams, which have remained rampant despite the mandatory SIM registration.

DICT Undersecretary Alexander Ramos claims that they have detected over 600 registered under one name. He says that it’s ‘abnormal’ for a prepaid user to register over 10 SIMs, unless they are using them for malicious activities.

DICT initially proposed a limit of five SIMs, but telco providers agreed to a SIM registration limit of 10. Ramos hopes to implement this change within a few months, as the agency works to expedite data exchange between agencies.

The agency says that they are currently working with the telco providers and related government agencies: including its sub-agency, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the National Privacy Commission (NPC) to strengthen the SIM Registration Act’s Implementing Rules and Regulations.

“We don’t need to amend [the SIM registration law], because the safeguards are there,” said Ramos.

As of July 30—the end of SIM registration period—NTC data showed a total of 113.9 million registered SIMs. That’s more than half out of total 168 million subscribers nationwide recorded in 2022.

Full story here: https://tinylinkurl.com/DICT-telcos-agree-to-SIM-registration-limit-of-10-per-user