Globe said it has logged over 1.5 million SIM registrations as of Dec. 28, while Smart Communications said it has received close to 400,000 successful applications. Dito Telecommunity, meanwhile, said subscribers who successfully register their SIM cards will receive 2GB bonus data.
Under the law, those who are required to register are all SIM subscribers, whether postpaid or prepaid, including embedded SIMs or eSIMs and other variations that are provisioned by any telco to provide text messages, calls, and/or data services.
The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) recently reported that the total headcount of full-time employees in the local IT-BPM sector is now at 1.55 million with total revenue valued at $32 billion driven by industry-wide stabilization and reinvigorated support from the public sector.
Pursuing the country’s digital trade integration will positively impact its emerging digital services trade, according to a recent study published by state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).
The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) has set the launch of the TALA hybrid rocket in 2023, the country’s first high-power hybrid rocket made from 3D-printed advanced composite materials.
Among the questions hurled on DICT secretary Ivan Uy at the committee level hearing was the appointment of Jose Vicente “Jovy” Salazar, the controversial former chair of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), as undersecretary of the DICT.
Called eTravel, the new website can be accessed at etravel.gov.ph and unifies all different systems and paper forms of different government agencies when travelling including the controversial One Health Pass which inbound passengers must accomplish when entering the country from abroad.
The Department of Finance said the proposed law will level the playing field between digital and traditional businesses, especially those that cannot shift to the digital platform.
The Philippines still has a long way to go in improving its digital competitiveness as it ranked 71st out of 131 economies in the annual Network Readiness Index (NRI).
Northern Samar representative Paul Ruiz Daza noted that the funds were originally allocated for the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to provide 105,000 free public Wi-Fi hotspots for P12 billion.
