Sales of SIM cards have decreased due to the implementation of the SIM Card Registration law.
“‘Yung resellers, distributors ng SIM cards, since nag-announce tayo ng ganito, bumagsak ang bentahan nila ng SIM cards dahil dati itong mga scammers, itong mga sindikato, bili nang bili ng SIM card, tapon,” Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy said during a Palace briefing.
“Ngayon, alam nila na hindi na nila magagawa ‘yan, bumagsak ngayon ang bentahan ng SIM cards,” he added.
Uy explained that this was expected with the implementation of the SIM Card Registration law, noting that since “there will be no more demand” except from the sale of SIM cards to foreigners going to the Philippines.
“In terms of the local population, the sales will be very, very small once this happens so those are the things that we are studying and anticipating and preparing for,” he said.
He added that while the DICT has no data on the losses of telecommunication firms in terms of SIM card sales, he suggested that they should no longer order cards from manufacturers and just exhaust their inventory.
The DICT secretary added that the number of spam text messages has “significantly dropped” since the implementation of the SIM card registration law.
The mandatory SIM card registration started on December 27, 2022 as required by Republic Act No. 11934 or the SIM Registration Act.
— Ronald Espartinez