Overview
- Operators must begin suspending unregistered prepaid numbers that end in 0 within 72 hours after the August 15 deadline, with numbers ending in 1 due by August 31 and phased deadlines through December 31.
- The Competitive Intelligence Unit reports the active mobile base fell from 162 million in December 2025 to 157.1 million in June 2026, a 4.9 million contraction that included a 1.7 million drop in Q2 linked in part to the registration drive.
- CRT lineaments require carriers to send reminders twice weekly and then daily in the final seven days before each deadline, and to limit suspended lines to emergency calls, operator contact and seismic alerts until reactivation.
- Prepago users are bearing the brunt of the purge, with roughly 6.3 million prepago accesses lost in H1 2026, and services that use phone verification such as banking apps and ride‑hailing risk temporary disruption; platforms like DiDi have started warning customers to register.
- Despite fewer lines, the sector posted record Q2 revenues of about 97,506 million pesos and an ARPU near 151.4 pesos, a shift analysts say reflects migration to higher‑value plans and could accelerate longer‑term market reconfiguration while prompting political calls for pauses or reviews.