Keep your DITO number active while abroad

DITO's contract is the shortest of the three Philippine clocks and the only one that ends with the number itself being struck off. The difference is not the length alone; it is what the carrier does to the number when the time runs out.

The clause

DITO's subscription terms put the whole life of a prepaid line in one paragraph: "Your DITO SIM Card shall be serviceable as long as it has Load. Your Subscription will be temporarily disconnected once your Load falls below one peso (Php1.00), unless you are subscribed to a Promo that allows continuous use of some services. Your Subscription will be reactivated upon Load top-up. If the temporary disconnection lasts for 90 days or more, your Subscription will be permanently disconnected, your DITO SIM Card will be permanently disabled, and your DITO mobile number will be blocked and blacklisted."

Two features stand out against the other Philippine networks. The threshold is a peso rather than zero, so a SIM with fifty centavos on it is already in the disconnected state. And the first stage is reversible in as few words as the terms can manage: a top-up reactivates.

Ninety days, and the number is gone

The second stage is where DITO differs from Globe and Smart, and the next clause removes the hope that usually keeps people from worrying: "We shall not reconnect permanently disconnected Subscriptions or replace permanently disabled DITO SIM Cards. A blocked and blacklisted DITO mobile number can no longer be reissued, even when a new DITO SIM Card is purchased. A new DITO SIM Card must be purchased and a new DITO Account must be created to enjoy a new Subscription."

A blacklisted number is not a number waiting to be recycled to someone else, and it is not a number you can buy back. It is out of circulation, which cuts both ways: nobody will inherit your old verification messages, and you will never hold that number again.

Registration, which DITO states as a condition rather than a warning

DITO's registration page describes the SIM Registration Act as a precondition: it "requires all new subscribers to register their SIM card prior to activation, and for existing subscribers to avoid deactivation", and it names who is covered, "All DITO SIM card users whether prepaid or postpaid, including foreign nationals." The implementing rules took effect on 27 December 2022.

The consequence is spelled out on the same page in the plainest terms any of the three carriers uses: a deactivated SIM "cannot be used for outgoing and incoming calls, internet access, or sending and receiving of messages".

What the terms do not say

Whether a received text counts as activity is not addressed. The terms give one route back from disconnection and name it: a top-up. If codes arriving on a DITO number matter to you, the reading that survives contact with the contract is to top up rather than to rely on traffic.

Roaming is not discussed in the terms we read at all, so whether roaming has to be enabled for a message to reach a DITO SIM abroad is a question for DITO's own roaming pages, which we have not read.

The other two networks are the comparison worth making before you choose one: Globe gives 120 days after the balance reaches zero, and Smart gives 180. The three are set side by side on the Philippines page.

Before you fly

• Leave more than one peso on the account, or accept that the subscription is disconnected and the clock is running.
• Count ninety days from the day the load dropped under a peso, not from the day you left.
• Treat the deadline as final. It is the only one of the three Philippine networks whose terms rule out ever reconnecting the number.