Bam Aquino Wants Higher Fines Against Erring Telcos

Bam Aquino Wants Higher Fines Against Erring Telcos

bam aquino

He wants to give the NTC teeth

One of the biggest problems when consumers file complaints against telcos for not delivering the right service, are the fines. Under the current provisions of the Commonwealth Act No. 146 or the Public Service Law, telcos are fined a laughably low fine of just Php 200 per day for infractions. We don’t need to tell you how ridiculously low that fine is.

But if Senator Aquino’s Senate Bill No. 3208 gets through, then telcos will be facing a fine of anywhere between Php 300,000 to Php 5 million a day for each violation of any certificate, authority, resolution or regulation of the National Telecommunications Commission, which would give the government body more leverage and ultimately greater power to enforce its rulings.

And that amount won’t remain static as well – the bill also gives the NTC the power to increase the fines every five years.

“With heavier penalties, NTC can expect greater compliance from Internet providers to standards and regulations that have been set to advance Internet quality in the Philippines,” Aquino said.

With OpenSignal ranking the country’s LTE speeds as one of the slowest in the world (freaking Kazakhstan has faster LTE speeds than us) this bill couldn’t come at a better time. Here’s to hoping that the bill passes through the Senate without getting railroaded.

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