Better SIM card listup on Day 2, telcos report

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM? A team assembled by the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, an agency under the Department of Information and Communications Technology, receives complaints from mobile phone users who are having problems registering their SIM cards. The center logged about 500 complaints during the first 24 hours of the registration. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Telecommunication companies have increased the capacity of their SIM (subscriber identity module) card registration portals after these had bogged down due to a surge in the number of registrants.

The two biggest telcos, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, on Wednesday said they were able to accommodate their subscribers again after making technical fixes on their registration microsites.

DITO Telecommunity, the smallest of the three telcos in the country, said its registration had been “successful” so far.

By the second day of SIM registration, Globe reported that it had 1.53 million SIM cards registered, up from just 20,000 the previous day; Smart, 388,522; and DITO, 497,783.

Currently, Globe has a mobile subscriber base of 87.9 million; Smart, 67.99 million; and DITO, 15 million.

Prepaid mobile subscribers, the overwhelming majority of SIM card owners, had complained that the registration websites were inaccessible or offline during the first day of registration on Dec. 27.

“Our SIM registration platform is back up and running, and we’re happy to report that our customers are logging in to register,” Globe Group chief sustainability and corporate communications officer Yoly Crisanto said.

She said the company will continue to “closely monitor the site’s performance.”

Taking ‘full responsibility’

Globe noted that its system was properly working between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Tuesday until the company shut it down after it “discovered potential minor vulnerabilities” in its registration microsite.

Prior to this, at least 20,000 of its subscribers were able to register. On Wednesday morning, Globe said its portal went live again.

Globe said the problem that it had to deal with required “careful patching in order to prevent any serious threat to customer data.”

“These issues prompted Globe to take proactive measures to make the site temporarily inaccessible as customer data security is paramount and any problem detected is treated with utmost severity,” the company added.

The telco said it was taking “full responsibility” for its actions and was “prepared to accept any regulatory penalty if merited, in order to prioritize the protection of its customers’ data.”

Hacking fears

Critics of the SIM Card Registration Act had expressed fears of possible hacking or breach of the massive personal information database held by just a handful of telcos that could compromise personal security, privacy and even finances of millions of Filipinos.

Kenneth Regañon, Smart regulatory affairs senior manager, said in their report to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) that some of their prepaid subscribers experienced “initial difficulties” in accessing the portal but successfully accomplished the registration process.

“To address this surge, we immediately increased the capacity of our portal, without going offline, enabling the registration of more subscribers,” he added.

Smart vowed to continue optimizing its platform to “mitigate future incidents and to better serve more Filipinos.”

Wednesday deadline

After noting numerous complaints from subscribers on the first day of the SIM card registration, the NTC ordered the telcos later that day to file their respective reports on the technical glitches that hampered the process.

Giving a Wednesday deadline for the reports, the regulator asked for details on “incidents of incomplete registration, platform involved, number of subscribers affected, geographical area and actions taken to address these issues.”

The NTC also told the telcos to include in their reports the actions they took to avoid further technical difficulties moving forward.

It did not specify what it would do with the information about SIM registration problems.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) launched on Tuesday a 24/7 SIM registration complaint center.

The platform is being handled by the DICT’s Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (hotline 1326). It will enable users to report their complaints and provide suggestions to improve the process.

The law sets April 26, 2023, as the deadline for registration of both prepaid and postpaid SIM cards. This may be extended for another 120 days.

Unregistered SIM cards would be deactivated, making the users unable to make calls, send messages or conduct e-commerce transactions using cell phones and other mobile devices.

SIM cards bought on April 27 onward are deactivated by default and can only be activated through registration. INQ

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