Solons want refund for telco poor service

A bill mandating telecommunication firms to grant refund to its customers for poor service has been filed at the House of Representatives.

Representatives Paolo Duterte of Davao city, Eric Yap of Benguet, Jocelyn Tulfo and Edvic Yap of ACT-CIS party-list and Ralph Tulfo of Quezon City filed House Bill 8480 which obliges telecommunication companies refund customers who experienced intermittent or continuous service disruption for 24 hours or more in a month.

The bill said that subscribers should only pay for the service they get so telecom firms will be prompted to provide fast, reliable and uninterrupted internet connection.

“While the telecommunications industry has continued to flourish in the country, internet connection and reliability of service remains a persistent problem, along with exorbitant costs paid by consumers for internet service,” Duterte said in a statement.

The authors of the bill also cited in their explanatory note that the Philippines is one of the countries with the most expensive fixed broadband services in Asia, resulting in its low ranking in the 2022 Digital Quality of Life Index (DQLI) independently conducted  by the cybersecurity firm Surfshark.

The Philippines ranked 98th in the 2022 DQLI, in terms of internet affordability, down by 26 notches from its similarly low ranking of 72nd in 2021.

"ISPs (internet service providers) and public telecommunications entities (PTE) concerned should not require the customer to take any action in order to receive a refund credit or bill adjustment," according to the bill.

The bill will amend Republic Act 7925 or the Public Telecommunications Policy Act enacted 28 years ago.

Telecom firms and ISPs found by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to be in violation the bill’s provisions will be fined between P200,000 to P2 million.

For violators whose gross annual income are P10 million and below, the penalty will be equivalent to 1 percent to 2 percent of their gross annual income.

Repeated violations are also penalized under the bill with revocation of the PTE’s provisional authority or certificate of public convenience and necessity, or the cancellation of the registration of the ISP, whichever applies, “including the waiver of pre-termination fees of affected subscribers and the timely disbursement of any remaining credits from excessive downtime.”—LDF, GMA Integrated News