Globe Telecom on Friday bared its support for the proposed government audit of the SIM registration database amid the continued proliferation of text scams.
Darius Delgado, Globe vice president and head of Consumer Mobile Business, said such an audit would only affirm the integrity of Globe’s SIM registration database and efforts to 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.
According to Delgado, most scam messages reaching mobile users are sent outside telco networks. Senders 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.
Globe also renewed its call for the full implementation of the National ID system to standardize the type of IDs accepted for SIM registration to add credibility to the process. The law allows the use of various types of government-issued IDs that may be prone to tampering and might have been faked.
GCash has previously been tapped to pilot test the government’s national ID eVerify platform that authenticates the identity 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 deactivated unverified submissions.
Earlier, it also deactivated and removed from its subscriber base over 30 million unregistered SIMs following the lapse of the registration period from 27 December 2022 to 30 July 2023 for SIMs already in use before the SIM Registration Act took effect.
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 from only 22,455 competitor SIMs blocked during the same period last year.
Globe also deactivated 841 SIMs from its network in Q1 2024 after these were identified as potential sources of spam or scam SMS or misuse.
Globe was the first telco in the country to enforce the blocking of all person-to-person SMS with clickable links, which the National Telecommunications Commission required of other telcos a year later. This has effectively eradicated scam and spam SMS within the Globe network.
