REFLECTING the growing impatience of mobile company customers, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian prodded telecommunication service providers to fast-track mobile number portability services now mandated by law, stressing they should not be made to wait for two more years.
“Dont let mobile consumers wait until 2021 for mobile portability,” Gatchalian reminded telcos in a statement on Thursday, even as he prodded the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to ensure that the three mobile service providers will implement the mobile portability in accordance with the intent of the law.
He warned that mobile service providers may be penalized with a maximum fine of up to P1 million and revocation of franchise “if they unjustly refuse to provide mobile number portability services,” and he advised cell-phone users to promptly report “non-compliance by erring telcos.”
There has been a clamor for companies to fast-track installation of a mechanism to pave the way for the immediate implementation of the Mobile Number Portability Act (MNPA), noting that telco giants Smart and Globe, and newcomer Dito Telecommunity earlier confirmed an agreement to tap US-based Syniverse to “provide the mobile number portability services.”
As principal author of the enabling law, Gatchalian noted that the mobile number portability law provides that this “should be available within six months from the promulgation of the Implementing Rules and Regulations [IRR],” as specifically provided under Section 11 of Republic Act 11202.
The law was signed by President Duterte in February 2019, paving the way for the issuance of the IRR last June 11, and clearing the way for the law to take effect last July 2, 2019, or over five months ago.
Gatchalian recalled reports attributed to Globe claiming that other countries that implemented cell-phone number portability “took 27 months or a little over two years to make the shift beginning from the issuance of the IRR.”
However, the senator was not convinced. “Setting mobile number portability for the second half of 2021 is unacceptable. Our consumers need not wait that long in order for them to be able to have that freedom to avail of the services they want. We are denying the right of every user to choose what is best for them,” Gatchalian griped.
He recalled that during the bicameral conference on the portability law, “the technical working group meeting and even in public hearings, the telcos assured that they will comply with the rules on mobile number portability.”
In fact, the lawmaker reminded, “both Globe and Smart have agreed to have the provision on mobile number portability be included in the renewal of their franchises” during the 17th Congress.
“To allow the telcos to renege on their commitments in fulfilling their legal obligations based on other countries’ implementation is tantamount to consenting to another scheme of the duopoly,” the senator pointed out. He warned that “this will frustrate competition and the Filipino consumer will have no other choice but to put up with their underwhelmingly poor and expensive services.”