According to the Department of Information and Communications Technology, more than 105 million SIM cards, or more than 60% of the total number of active SIM cards in the country, are now registered with the government.
As of Sunday, the DICT had recorded around 105 million registered SIM cards, 49 million from Smart, 48 million from Globe, and approximately seven million from DITO.
The extended deadline for SIM registration ends on July 25th, or Tuesday. The DICT extended the deadline for SIM card registration by three months in April, when just 49.3%, or 82.8 million, of the 168 million active subscribers registered their SIM cards.
The DICT has stated that no more extensions to the July 25 deadline will be granted because the government has met the "lower end" of its targets, according to National Telecommunications Commission Deputy Commissioner John Paulo Salvahan.
Unregistered SIM cards will lose service on July 26 at midnight, and affected users will have a five-day grace period to seek reactivation, as the DICT announced last week.
Users with deactivated SIM cards will be unable to make or receive calls or texts, as well as access e-wallets and other mobile services linked to their SIM cards.
Critics of the SIM Card Registration Act, also known as Republic Act 11934, have previously expressed concerns about its constitutionality, claiming that mandatory SIM registration "restricts the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and violates the right against unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as the right to substantive due process.
In April, the Supreme Court denied their motion to temporarily halt SIM card registration.