Ayala-led telco supports audit of registered SIMs

CEBU, Philippines — Globe Telecom has pledged to extend its full cooperation to a government audit of its SIM registration database amid persistent scam texts.

In a statement, Darius Delgado, Globe Vice President and Head of Consumer Mobile Business said such an audit would serve to affirm the integrity of Globe’s SIM registration database and its efforts to consistently enhance its SIM registration platform.

“We’re halfway into the second year of the implementation of the SIM Registration Act, and the DICT’s call is timely. We take this as an opportunity to show our efforts in ensuring that our SIM registration data have been validated,” Delgado said.

Delgado pointed out that most scam messages now reaching mobile users are sent outside telco networks. These instead use over-the-top media services or chat apps, Rich Communication Services (RCS) chats for Android users, other Internet-based messaging platforms, and fake cell towers.

He said Globe also renewed its call for the full implementation of the National ID system to standardize the type of ID accepted for SIM registration, adding credibility to the process. Currently, the law allows the use of various types of government-issued IDs that may be prone to tampering and at worse, fake.

Its sister company, GCash has been tapped to pilot test the government’s National ID eVerify Platform, which will authenticate the identities of public and private sector customers in various transactions.

Last year, Globe initiated a sweep of its SIM registration data following reports that non-human photos had been used to register SIMs. Since then, it has been deactivating unverified submissions.

Earlier, it also deactivated and removed from its subscriber base over 30 million unregistered SIMs following the lapse of the registration period (December 27, 2022 to July 30, 2023) for SIMs already in use before the SIM Registration Act took effect.

Globe also enforces the following measures to ensure the security of its SIM registration platform: Advanced encryption protocols to secure data transmission during registration; live photo capture technology to prevent the use of stock or pre-existing photos; and limited ID submission retries to guard against attempts to register SIMs using fake documents.

Globe also continues to proactively block SIMS linked to fraudulent activity.

In the first quarter of 2024, Globe blacklisted 36,549 SIMs from other networks, a 62 percent spike compared to the 22,455 competitor SIMs blocked during the same period last year.

The Ayala-led telecom company also deactivated 841 SIMs from its network in the first quarter of 2024 after they were identified as potential sources of spam or scam SMS, or misuse.

In September 2022, Globe was the first telco in the country to enforce the unprecedented measure of blocking all person-to-person SMS with clickable links, which the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) required of other telcos a year later. This has effectively eradicated scams and spam SMS within the Globe network.

Globe currently has 58.8 million mobile subscribers. — (FREEMAN)