Thank you, President Duterte!
Mobile phone users would no longer have to pay extra for calling and texting other networks, thanks to a new law.Under the Mobile Number Portability Act signed recently by President Rodrigo Duterte, mobile service providers should not charge an interconnection fee for domestic calls and texts upon effectivity of the law.
"Ibig sabihin kahit tumawag ka sa Globe, Smart o doon sa third telco, wala na silang sisingilin na interconnection fees sa text at sa tawag," Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, the primary author of the law, told CNN Philippines' Balitaan on Wednesday.
[Translation: This means that even if you call to Globe, Smart or to the third telco, they would no longer charge interconnection fees for texts and calls.]
Currently, the National Telecommunications Commission pegs interconnection charges at P0.05 per message and P0.50 per minute for calls.
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Gatchalian said this amendment in the bill was introduced by Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, who raised the possibility of users not benefitting from the law which allows them to transfer mobile networks without changing numbers because they still have to pay interconnection charges for calls and texts to other networks.
Gatchalian said mobile service providers can easily shoulder this, as interconnection fees only account for a fraction of their income.
Under the law, mobile service providers that do not let subscribers switch to another network within 24 hours would be fined from ₱10,000 to ₱1,000,000 and even have their franchises revoked. Subscribers are also entitled to damages of up to ₱40,000.
Gatchalian said the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the law should be completed within 90 days after its enactment.
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The National Privacy Commission said it will work with the National Telecommunications Commission and other government agencies to provide additional inputs in the crafting of the IRR and other policies related to number porting.
The privacy body vowed to provide safeguards to protect the personal data of mobile subscribers.
Since we will have permanent phone numbers, same on other countries that we have to register our id for every phone numbers we're using. It will discourage bad citizens doing unsolicited hacks for they can be traced easily.
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