IN a bid to address poor cellular phone signals and slow internet connections, the National Telecommunications Commission urged Congress to amend an eight-decade law regulating telecommunications companies and increase fines from P200 to P1 million per day.
“We really need the help of Congress [in amending the law] because when we asked the [National Economic and Development Authority], this P200 a day in 1936 is equivalent to P1,076,000 million [today],” said NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba.
Cordoba told lawmakers in hearing on the P3.5-billion budget of the Department of Information and Communications Technology “if the penalty is this huge, we are sure telecommunication companies will step up.”
Cordoba was referring to the 1936 Public Service Law where the NTC could only impose a fine of P200 per day against erring telcos although the telecommunication industry has grown way beyond its size when the law was first enacted.
Lawmakers questioned DICT officials about the poor service of telcos, especially internet services in the country.
He said he is optimistic that the 17th Congress can finally pass the proposed amendment because all they can do now is shame companies by making known the poor quality of service that telcos have been providing based on their equipment.
“There is a pending legislation on this last Congress, so we are hoping that this will push through,” Cordoba said.
“Based on the power you can give us on the imposable penalty, definitely we will be able to make use of it,” Cordoba said. “We do the test on a monthly basis and we publish it in newspapers, and tri-media. So instead of implementing the P200 penalty, we do the shame game.”
But Cordoba also admitted the difficulty in setting up cellular sites and lack of government investment in information and communications technology as among several reasons for the problem on signal and internet service.
He said that it takes years for a telco to build cell sites due to health hazards and some local government units have been requiring the firms to get as many as 32 permits.
“The LGUs can ask for 32 requirements, compared to us who only need one. That is where the problem is. On the other hand, Ayala Alabang—which is around 500 hectares— gets its signal from the outside
[cell site] because this kind of villages see cell cites as hazardous or eyesores,” Cordoba said.