All three major telco players reported glitches and interruptions on the first day of mandatory SIM card registrations, with at least one telco forced to temporarily go offline.
Globe Telecom Inc. temporarily shut down its SIM registration portal on Tuesday (December 27), saying it discovered potential minor vulnerabilities in its microsite “that require careful patching in order to prevent any serious threat to customer data.”
“We take this very seriously hence even minor issues are given utmost attention, Globe said. “This happened despite all the preparation, technical tests and due diligence we have conducted.
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Subscribers of the Ayala-owned telco reported being able to access the site and register between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. although it went down afterwards for most of the day. The company said at least 20,000 customers were able to register.
“We would like to thank our customers for going in to register early,” said Yoly C. Crisanto, Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications of the Globe Group. “Technical teams are working double time so the online platform can go live before the day ends. Rest assured that we are optimizing our systems to give you a better registration experience. We’d also like to remind our customers that there is enough time to register.”
Crisanto said Globe has been preparing for the implementation of the SIM Registration Law but had to recalibrate its system within just 15 days given the release of new guidelines under the implementing rules and regulations (IRR), including the verification step through a selfie.
The IRR was released on December 12, 2022.
Meanwhile, rival Smart Communications Inc.’s registration portal also reported glitches, with users some users reporting getting a “502 Bad Gateway Message.”
Most of the issues involved SIM registration for prepaid users. Smart Postpaid subscribers only needed to text “Yes” to a number to confirm their identity.
Finally, a spokesman for Dito Telecommunity Corp. said the registration process for the third telco was “generally smooth,” and that it had registered over 200,000 subscribers as of 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
All three telcos and officials of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) admitted that they expected “birthing pains” on the rollout of the implementation of the SIM Registration Law. There had even been reports of scammers using fake registration sites to hack devices.
The agency said it has launched a 24/7 complaint center where the public can report issues related to SIM registration as well as serve as other concerns and suggestions. The Complaint Center for the SIM Registration will be under the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), an attached agency of the DICT.
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