A HOUSE leader on Saturday asked the House leadership to legislate minimum quality standards for mobile telephone services to penalize telecommunications companies (telcos) guilty of “horrendous” complaints by subscribers, such as poor network signals, overcharging, interrupted or dropped voice calls, vanishing prepaid loads and the surge of spam messages.
In filing House Bill No. 4695, Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte also sought to require the National Telecommunications Commission to come up with a comprehensive and efficient system for subscribers to report their complaints of substandard services by their respective telco providers.
“It is time we stop settling for below-par services that these companies promise but ultimately fail to deliver. While this sector has had, in recent years, considerable competition, it persists to be an oligopoly that the state is obliged to keep an eye on,” Villafuerte, vice chairman of the House committee on appropriations, said.
HB 4695 seeks to protect the interests of Filipino mobile service consumers by regulating prices, requiring proper detailed billing of both prepaid and postpaid subscriptions, and providing full mobile number portability, he said.
Other service improvements specified in Villafuerte’s bill include offering consumers insurance for their mobile devices, protecting their right to privacy, and prohibiting unsolicited commercial advertisements unless allowed by them and that must be sent only during business hours.
The bill proposed penalties against erring telcos ranging from fines of not less than P1 million but not more than P10 million and/or a suspension or revocation of their legislative franchises and other licenses issued by the NTC.
He said he had been urging local governments to ease regulations for telcos in setting up the infrastructure necessary to ensure the delivery of reliable, faster digital services.
This, he added, would further improve mobile voice and data services in the country,
“Telcos have been complaining that they have to secure dozens of permits, mostly from LGUs, to put up cell sites,” Villafuerte said.
“On top of securing permits from the NTC plus the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for Environmental Clearance Certificates and the Department of Health for Radio Frequency Radiation Clearance Certificates, Telcos must also get approvals from the city or municipal governments, from the barangay units and even from subdivisions,” he added.
Villafuerte stressed “the urgency for LGUs to help fast-track the establishment of a far-reaching telecoms infrastructure not only to spell faster and cheaper Internet services across the country; but also to arrest the sharp decline of the Philippines’ global competitiveness.”