The House of Representatives has endorsed for Senate approval a measure seeking to promote open access in data transmission and provide additional powers to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
This, after the lower chamber, by a vote of 204-7, passed House Bill 6557, which aims to encourage investments in the digital infrastructure of the country, on third and final reading late Tuesday.
The proposal also seeks to protect the public interest, as it is affected by its ability to access data networks.
House Committee on Information and Communications Technology Chairman Victor Yap of Tarlac said that, as the Philippines struggles with limitations of infrastructure, it is necessary to ensure open access that would provide every option to improve data transmission.
“Data transmission is a key factor in communications, and this measure seeks to establish a regulatory framework to develop efficient and effective data-transmission in the long term,” the principal author of the bill said.
The lawmaker said the proposal is in line with the policy of the State to narrow the digital divide in the country by encouraging the development of data-transmission infrastructure and removing any barrier to competition in data-transmission services.
Under the measure, data transmission refers to the process of sending digital or digitized analog signal over a communication medium to one or more computing network/s or communication or electronic device/. It enables the transfer and communication of devices in a point-to-point, point-to-multipoint and multipoint-to-multipoint environment.
The term data transmission includes the provision of voice-over Internet protocol (VOIP) services, but does not include the provision of basic telephone services.
The bill refers to “open access” as the system of allowing the use of data transmission and/or distribution systems and associated facilities subject to fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms in a transparent market.
The measure also aims to establish a strong and independent regulatory body and system to ensure and enhance fair competition in the data-transmission sector.
The bill seeks to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem where persons who wish to engage in the data-transmission industry can compete openly and freely in the spirit of fair competition and “permissionless” innovation.
The measure shall apply to all persons who participate in the data- transmission industry.
The bill provides that any person or entity whose business deals substantially with the transmission of data, including VOIP service provider, Internet-service providers, and data-center service providers shall be governed by the provisions of the proposed law.
The measure added public telecommunications entities principally engaged in the provision of basic telephone services, such as international carrier, interexchange carrier, local exchange operator and mobile radio-services provider, which also provide data-transmission services, shall be subject to the provisions of the proposal with respect to the data-transmission services they provide and interconnection to their networks that they extend to data-transmission industry participants.
Meanwhile, the bill said that among the functions of the NTC is to ensure that the data-transmission sector remains open and accessible to all qualified participants by implementing an efficient and speedy administrative process in the authorization and registration of data-transmission sector participants.
The measure said the NTC shall also mandate interconnection so that data-transmission industry participants can connect to each other at the various segment and interfaces, such that entities of any size may freely enter and exit the market, and dominance by any single player or group of players is done away with.
It added the NTC shall adopt a technology-neutral framework that allows data-transmission industry participants to use any available technology to provide service.
The measure said it shall promote fair and open competition at all multiple layers of the data-transmission network, allowing a wide variety of physical networks and applications to interact in an open architecture.
Also, it said the NTC shall mandate transparency in pricing and the publication of pricing information to ensure fair trading within and between each data-transmission segment so as to allow clear, comparative information on market prices and services.
It shall promulgate policies that will encourage distributed local solutions rather than centralized ones, encouraging services that are closer to the user, the bill added.