PLDT’s wireless unit Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) and value brand TNT assisted over a thousand customers in Visayas during the three-day nationwide rollout of facilitated SIM Registration booths in remote areas spearheaded by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in collaboration with the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
NTC Region 7 Director Sophia Lynn Lumantod expressed her gratitude for Smart’s support for this activity. “We saw and felt Smart’s cooperation in our three-day nationwide cascade of SIM Registration in areas far away from cities. The Municipality of Moalboal is the first far-away town in Region 7 where telcos’ registration booths were set up to assist subscribers. We thank Smart for their all-out support in making this cascade possible,” she said.
Under this initiative, Smart deployed SIM registration sites in the towns of Moalboal, Cebu; Palo, Leyte; and Carles, Iloilo. The booths catered to residents from various barangays of each municipality, as well as those in the neighboring towns.
“We at Smart give our all-out support to the NTC, DICT, and DILG’s efforts in ensuring that no subscriber gets left behind in the SIM Registration drive. We commit to fortifying this initiative to comply with the SIM Registration Law and to help protect more Filipinos from SIM-aided fraud, including those living in far-flung areas. We also encourage our subscribers to help their families and friends register to ensure continuous mobile services for them,” said Grace Ruperto, Assistant Vice President for Customer Development Strategies and Support for Visayas at Smart.
“Thanks to Smart for the very smooth registration of my SIM. We hope that this effort will reach more areas to assist those who are still unsure on how to register,” said Geneve Aumentado, a resident from Brgy. San Jose in Palo, Leyte.
The second wave of NTC’s simultaneous SIM Registration in Visayas will be on February 2 to 3, 2023, in Oslob and Malabuyoc, Cebu; in Tolosa and Tanauan, Leyte; in Madalag, Aklan; and in Lemery, Iloilo.
The Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Act, also known as Republic Act (RA) No. 11934, regulates the use of SIM cards by requiring all end-users to register their SIMs under their name.
PLDT and Smart’s compliance with the SIM Registration Act underscores the PLDT group’s longstanding consumer protection initiatives, which includes blocking SIMs that send ‘smishing’ messages and Uniform Resource Locators (URL) or links that lead to illegal activities, to help safeguard the public against emerging cyberthreats, vulnerabilities, and other online criminal activities. (PR)
