NTC: SIM registration in 2 remote C. Luzon areas completed
Residents in the coastal town of Calumpit in Bulacan province gathered at the town hall on Friday (Jan. 27) to register their SIM cards. (Contributed photo)
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga—Two of the 15 remote areas in Central Luzon have finished the SIM (subscriber identity module) registration, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) regional office here confirmed on Friday, Jan. 27.
A total of 781 residents in the coastal town of Calumpit in Bulacan province successfully registered their SIM cards on Thursday, NTC regional director Azor Dalmacio Sitchon said.
He said NTC Officer-in-Charge Commissioner Ella Blanca Lopez and Deputy Commissioner Jon Paulo Salvahan monitored the Calumpit leg of registration in remote areas to improve the process.
Calumpit Mayor Glorime Faustino gathered the villagers at the town hall, where the registration was held.
Company officials of Smart Communications Inc., Globe Telecom Inc. and Dito came to confirm their respective registration systems.
The registration of SIM in remote areas was piloted for what Sitchon called national operational planning in Barangay Sapang Kawayan in Masantol, Pampanga,on Jan. 7.
At least 68 residents failed to register due to wrong data input or weak signal, he said, adding that local governments have been asked to help with the online filing.
Undersecretaries Anna Marie Yu Lamentillo and Margarita Gutierrez of the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the Department of the Interior and Local Government joined the Calumpit leg to assure data privacy, saying the SIM Registration Act or Republic Act. No. 11934, the first law signed by President Marcos Jr., aims to reduce and stop fraud and criminal activities using mobile phones.
SIM registration will be next in the mountain village of Nabuklod in Floridablanca, Pampanga and Dilasag town in northern Aurora province.
According to the NTC, over 20 million SIM cards, around 12 percent of the active cards in the nation, have been registered since Dec. 27th, when the registration began, until the 15th of January.
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