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Friday, March 29, 2024

Lawmaker wants bill protecting telco users

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A lawmaker has filed a bill for the establishment of a Magna Carta for Mobile Phone Subscribers in a bid to provide better protection to clients of telecommunication companies.

House Bill 5242, filed by Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo, seeks to institutionalize a minimum standard in terms of quality of service offered by local telecoms companies.

Castelo’s measure covers truth in advertising, telecoms offers, customer service, billing, protection of subscriber information, complaint handling and enforcement.

Most notable in the measure are the provisions that aim to address common complaints such as slow internet connection and expiration of load credits.

Under the measure, all mobile telecoms service providers shall provide a committed information rate or minimum internet download speed of 10 megabits per second for mobile broadband/internet access.

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“Every two years after the effectivity of this Act, the National Telecommunications Commission shall make a review, and may adjust the standards, taking into consideration industry trends and developments in information and communications technology, provided, that the minimum speed shall be above the global average,” Castelo said.

The proposed charter also declares as unlawful the imposition of an expiration period on the validity of unused prepaid call and text cards; forfeiture of load credits stored on an active prepaid phone account via call and text card; or refusal to give a refund to any prepaid subscriber whose load credits were forfeited without any valid cause.

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