While there’s good news that the government has agreed to extend the SIM Registration deadline by 90 days, the DICT warned that unregistered SIM cards will gradually lose access to select services until they become completely invalid come July 25.

In a presscon, DICT Sec. Ivan John Uy explained that those with unregistered SIM cards from April 26 onwards will gradually lose access to some services. Uy adds that they will assess the rate of registration within the extended 90 day period. Once they notice a trend within the next 30 or 60 days, the DICT will start deactivating some services on these unregistered SIM cards.

In an example given by Uy during the presscon, he states that they intend to make these unregistered SIM cards lose access to some value added services like internet access—but can still do calls and texts. The next step will be something like losing access to outgoing goals—all until the SIM card gets deactivated because it’s unregistered.

“That way, ramdam niyo kung anong effects ‘pag hindi kayo nagparehistro,” Uy emphasized. “We feel na kapag makakatikim sila gradually ng effects ng hindi pagpaparegister, mapipilitan silang magparehistro.

That being said, Uy hopes that the 90 day extension should be enough for those who have yet to register. Uy adds that the country will have the same problem if there will be clamor for another round of extension.

As for the concerns regarding valid IDs, Uy elaborated that they are allowing barangay-issued IDs for SIM registration since it’s considered as a government ID. In addition to that, Uy said that they will be deploying several personnel to far-flung areas to help in assisting other users with SIM registration.