Validity of cellphone prepaid loads to be extended to 1 year

The validity of prepaid cards of cellphones will be extended to one year, a GMA News' Lei Alviz reported on 24 Oras on Monday.

This came amid complaints from consumers about them being unable to use the load due to some supposed glitch in the system of telecommunication companies.

A joint memorandum circular of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will stretch the validity of the prepaid load to one year starting January 5, 2018.

"They feel na minsan kinakain 'yung load nila by some glitch in the software ng telcos. Sa initiative ng DTI, to answer this complaint of consumers, extended lahat ng load to one year," said Eliseo Rio Jr., acting DICT secretary.

"Sa case naman ng preload, it occupies space sa memory bank ng telcos and there's a cost to that. So win-win solution, one year. One year ang napag-usapan and the telcos also agreed to that," he added.

The report said data from the DTI and DICT showed that out of the 130 million cellphone subscribers in the Philippines, about 123.5 million are prepaid subscribers wherein some of them have more than one cellphone. —Anna Felicia Bajo/KBK, GMA News