With only a month to go before the July 25 deadline for registering SIM cards, the DICT said that it will no longer carry out its plans for the gradual deactivation of unregistered SIM cards. To recall, the DICT initially had plans to force unregisterd SIM card owners to register by gradual deactivation of select services leading up to the July 25 deadline.

The reason for this? DICT said that they have already reached 100 million SIM cards registered and that the figure is already a good basis for assessing if the country has complied with close to 100% SIM registration. As of June 20, a total of 100,048,884 SIM cards have already been registered.

“Masyadong hassle pa yata. Gagawa pa tayo ng program to ano tapos we will just use it for one month. Eh yung development nun at deployment baka abutin ng three weeks or one month,” DICT Sec Ivan John Uy added, explaining that it’s not sensible to implement a program one month before the July 25 deadline for SIM registration.

That being said, Uy continues to urge the public to make sure to have their SIM cards registered–especially considering that the government has approved a 90-day extension to accommodate others who have

“So in the remaining one month, last chance for everybody to register their SIM cards. Oras na hindi kayo makarehistro at maputol ang inyong SIM, huwag na kayong magalit. Binigyan na kayo ng lahat ng oportunidad na magparehistro. At inextend pa natin,” Uy said.