With the April 26 SIM card registration deadline fast approaching, Globe Telecom remains vigilant in its appeal to government for an extension. The telco giant cascaded its pressing concern in a virtual mini press conference earlier today.
Globe Telecom executives Miss Yoly Crisanto, Group Chief Sustainability Officer, and Mr. Eric Leif Tanbauco, Vice President for Mobile Prepaid Business were present during the meeting, which was facilitated by Ms. Coreliza Reyes, Head of Public Relations and Communication Strategy.
During the presscon, Miss Crisanto disclosed that 33% of Globe Telecom’s customer base have registered; this figure translates to 28.9 million subscribers. A huge chunk of the telco giant’s subscribers are prepaid users.
“Success rate is low. That is the reason why we are asking for an extension. What we are trying to do is to improve the success rate of the registration. At the end of the day, we are treating this as an urgent public service on our part, “Ayaw natin mawala ang mobile services ng ating mga customers.” That is the most important thing that we want to achieve, therefore we are asking for that extension.”
Additionally, Mr. Tanbauco expressed that accessing mobile services is part of our daily life.
“Yung mobile phone natin today, parang doon nakasalalay ang buong buhay natin. Pag di kayo nakapag-register di kayo makakagamit ng Gcash, all the way to e-com, ride hailing ups, entertainment. That is why it is important for us to increase the success rate before we implement the deadline.”
Mobile services such as making calls, texting, accessing your mobile wallet, meeting online, watching videos are important to mobile users today. These services could be cut short if you do not have your SIM card registered by April 26.
What is Globe Telecom’s take on why SIM registration is so slow?
Miss Crisanto shared observations such as Pinoys tendency to do things “last minute”, the challenges and of securing national or government ID which is the main requirement in SIM registration. The senior executive disclosed that the telco company made suggestions to government regulators to accept company ID or a school ID. Other suggestions they made include “conditional” registration – accepting the initial registration of the customer even without the mandatory ID and adding more government offices to act as registration sites.
Nevertheless, Globe Telecom and other telco providers are in talks with DICT and the NTC for SIM registration extension.
On top of this, the GlobeTelecom executives stressed that they continue implementing digital literacy efforts and on ground activities in cooperation with the LGU to further support customers for SIM registration.
Mr. Tanbauco said “Our end in Globe Telecom, tuly-tuloy ang mga efforts to educate the customers. We do instructional videos to share. Mabilis naman po ang proseso at mabilis mag-register.” He revealed that last April 1, the number of SIM registration increased by 30%.
Despite this, he said that assisted registration is needed for rural areas with low internet incidence to help register offline which is seen as one of the biggest hurdles.
Would Globe Telecom automatically comply with government regulation on SIM cards not registered?
Miss Cristanto pointed out “As a publicly listed company, obviously we have to comply with government regulation. Alam namin na magiging mabigat ang impact sa ating mga customers yung bigla kang mawawalan ng mobile services. And that is the appeal we are making to the government.”
Were text scams or fraudulent activities lessened?
Mr. Tanbauco mentioned “They are already feeling it – di na gaano karami ang mga text-based scams. Drastically, bumaba siya by 90% upon the implementation of the sim registration act. We are very vigilant to catch scammers or fraudulent customers. We have a mechanism to detect fraudulent activity.”
When asked what is considered a successful ‘number’, Miss Crisanto responded “More than 50% to say that it is successful.”
