MANILA — People who failed to register their SIM cards on or before the July 25 extended deadline can still reactivate their SIMs during a 5-day window period, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said Wednesday.

Subscribers with unregistered SIMs can apply for reactivation, but only until July 30, according to an earlier statement by the National Telecommunications Commission.

By July 31, all unregistered SIMs will be permanently deactivated and can no longer be reactivated or registered.

SIM registration was supposed to end on April 26 this year, but this was extended by another 90 days amid complaints from some subscribers that they could not fulfill ID requirements.

"Some of them will still receive an SMS during those 5 days just to tell them that 'hey you haven't registered your SIM card and you only have this remaining 5 days to reactivate your SIM card,'" DICT Secretary Ivan Uy told ANC's "Headstart."

Uy said failure to reactivate a SIM would result in a permanent inability to recover the number.

More than 105 million SIMs have been registered, according to the DICT. This makes up 63 percent of the total reported active SIMs as of December last year.

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— ANC, July 26, 2023