BAD INTERNET SERVICE? Congressman proposes P50-million fine on slow ‘high speed’ providers

MANILA – Amid widespread consumer complaints of slow “high-speed” Internet access as well as recurring blocked or dropped mobile phone voice calls, House Deputy Minority Leader and LPG-MA Rep. Arnel Ty is batting for an administrative fine of up to P50 million for telecommunications companies that fail to comply with directives to improve their services.

“We are pushing for new legislation that will revise and update the financial punishment that regulators may impose on telcos that are unable to live up to mandatory quality of service standards,” Ty said in a news release Sunday.

At present, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) may exact a fine of only up to P200 per day on telcos offering services that do not meet quality benchmarks. The amount is based on a 78-year-old law, the Public Service Act of 1936.

Ty said telcos would rather risk paying the paltry fine than upgrade their services.

“There are bills seeking to raise the maximum fine to any amount, as may be deemed appropriate by the NTC, provided it shall not exceed P50 million,” he said.

Consumer protection

Ty cited the State’s duty, under The Consumer Act of 1992, to protect the interest of consumers, including mobile phone and broadband subscribers, promote their general welfare, and to establish standards of conduct for business and industry.

Meanwhile, Ty favors the classification of broadband or high-speed Internet access as a “basic service,” along with voice calls and text messaging.

“We are pushing for universal broadband service. Government’s goal should be to ensure that all citizens have access to high-speed Internet service at a fair price,” he said.

Ty stressed the need to renew the country’s telecommunications laws “to make them highly responsive to rapidly evolving new technologies.”

“In the case of broadband, we have to enable the NTC to push for greater public access to the service via minimum quality standards and reasonable user rates,” he added.

At present, broadband is being treated as a value-added service, meaning its speed and price are supposed to be dictated by the free market.

At a recent Senate hearing, Sen. Loren Legarda berated officials of telcos for their unreliable broadband services.

“As we speak, there is no Internet (access) in my office. Internet (access) is either absent or excruciatingly low, which is so frustrating. I don’t like high-tech answers, please. Gusto ko maintindihan. Ang mahal ng singil, bakit ganon? (I want to understand. The fees are high, why is that?)” Legarda complained.

The telcos attributed the problem to severe congestion in service areas with high concentrations of broadband users.

Ty for his part previously filed House Resolution 186, demanding a congressional inquiry into the deteriorating services of telcos.

He noted that a growing number of consumer complaints received by the NTC pertain to blocked calls (denied access by the network), dropped calls (involuntarily disconnected), delayed call set-up, inadequate reception, and deficient broadband services.

Besides poor signal quality, wherein voice transmission in an ongoing call becomes choppy or garbled, Ty also cited complaints that it takes a long time for subscribers to get the first ring after dialing a called party.

“The degraded services may be due to extreme congestion. It would appear that telcos have been taking on an incremental number of subscribers every quarter, without building up their networks fast enough, their huge earnings notwithstanding,” Ty said. –InterAksyon.com