Deactivated SIM cards may be restored 5 days after April 26 deadline – NTC

NTC/SIM card. | INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — Deactivated subscriber identity module (SIM) cards after the April 26 registration deadline may still be reactivated within five days after that date, the National Telecommunications Communication (NTC) said Friday.

This gives a final chance for SIM card owners who failed to enroll their details within the registration period to keep their mobile numbers.

Under the SIM Registration Act, unlisted SIM cards within the registration period will be automatically deactivated after the deadline, which is April 26. But NTC Deputy Commissioner Jon Paulo Salvahan noted that the law’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR) provide the revival of the deactivated SIM card.

“Upon expiration po sa deadline, assuming there’s no extension, under the law po at IRR, automatically po deactivated ‘yung SIMs. However, the law naman po provided a way to have these SIMs reactivated within five days po of automatic deactivation. Pwede ninyo po i-reactivate ‘yung SIM,” said Salvahan during the Laging Handa briefing.

(Upon expiration of the deadline, assuming there is no extension under the law and IRR, the SIMs will be automatically deactivated. However, the law provided a way to reactivate these SIMs within five days of the automatic deactivation. You can have the SIM reactivated.)

But the law’s IRR does not state how to revive the automatically deactivated SIM cards after the deadline. However, it extended the registration period up to a maximum of 120 days.

“All existing SIM subscribers/end-users shall register within one hundred eighty (180) days from the effectivity of the Act. The registration may be extended for a period not exceeding one hundred twenty (120) days,” it states.

“Failure to register the existing SIM within the period prescribed shall result in the automatic deactivation of the SIM. The deactivated SIM may only be reactivated after registration; provided, however, that reactivation shall be made not later that five (5) days after such automatic deactivation,” it also states.

Based on the latest tally of the NTC, 75,564,837 SIM cards have been registered as of April 19 – seven days before the April 26 deadline. But this figure only accounts for 44.97 percent of all existing or in-use SIM cards in the country.

Despite numerous calls to extend the deadline, the Department of Information and Communications Technology said Wednesday that the registration period would not be extended.

Salvahan, however, said that factors like the rate of registration and issues in the process of registration are still being considered at the moment.

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