Members of the Aeta community in Barangay Banoyo register their SIMs

PLDT’s wireless unit Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) and value brand TNT go the distance to ensure that all their customers are able to complete the registration of their active sim cards. Smart has set up assisted registration booths across Luzon, including far-flung Batangas municipalities, to reach subscribers in remote areas. 

“At Smart, we continue to exert all efforts to ensure compliance with the SIM Card Registration Act by the dedline on April 26, 2023. By collaborating with the local government units (LGU) and local leaders, we are going the extra mile to assist subscribers who may face challenges in registering their mobile numbers,” said Alex O. Caeg, SVP and Head Consumer Sales Group at PLDT and Smart. 

With the help of municipal officials of San Luis, Batangas, Smart recently held a SIM Registration Day in Barangay Banoyo. Days before the event, Smart personnel visited the Aeta community in the town’s hinterlands to orient them on the requirements needed for registration.  

Smart sets up an assisted SIM registration booth in Barangay Banoyo, San Luis, Batangas

“Mobile services are important in our community because we mainly use cell phones to communicate and to exchange information with residents in the town center. Before, people needed to trek to our community just to deliver messages,” said Jemelyn Arguilles, chieftain of the Aeta community in Barangay Banoyo. Arguilles and her neighbors walked for 20 minutes to get to the registration booth at the barangay hall.  

Smart also supported the assisted SIM Registration Program led by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) in the island municipality of Tingloy, also in Batangas. The fifth-class municipality is home to more than 11,000 Smart and TNT subscribers.  

Since the start of the nationwide SIM registration in December, more than 15 million Smart and TNT prepaid and postpaid subscribers have registered their SIMs.  

Smart visits the island municipality of Tingloy, Batangas to help subscribers register their SIMs

New and existing Smart Prepaid and TNT subscribers may also visit PLDT and Smart stores and access Smart’s SIM registration portal through https://www.smart.com.ph/simreg, while Postpaid customers can simply text YES to 5858 to confirm their registration.

PLDT and Smart’s support for SIM Registration underscores the PLDT group’s longstanding consumer protection initiatives, which includes blocking SIMs that send ‘smishing’ messages and Uniform Resource Locators (URL) or links that lead to illegal activities, to help safeguard the public against emerging cyberthreats, vulnerabilities, and other online criminal activities.