PLDT’s wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) is gearing up for SIM registration, as Congress transmits the bill for signature of the President.
Atty Roy D. Ibay, Smart VP and Head of Regulatory Affairs, said: “We are carefully reviewing the key updates in the currently ratified bill and look forward to contributing in the crafting of the bill’s implementing rules and regulations, ready to bring our knowledge of global best practices to the table.”
Alongside their support for SIM registration, Smart and parent company PLDT’s long-standing consumer protection initiatives include measures aimed at curbing mobile phone-aided criminal activities such as text scams. In addition to blocking SIMs that send ‘smishing’ messages, Smart has also blocked Uniform Resource Locators (URL) linked to these illegal activities. From June to August alone, Smart has blocked 167,000 numbers that were found to have been used in fraudulent activities. The network has also blocked around 342 million smishing messages in the same time frame.
PLDT and Smart invested nearly ₱3 billion in cybersecurity infrastructure in 2021 to safeguard the public against emerging cyberthreats, vulnerabilities, and other online criminal activities. PLDT and Smart have also launched regular information dissemination and customer education campaigns to help subscribers identify red flags that indicate scams and fraud.