Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada proposed Senate Bill No. 2074 last April 27.
The new bill, once it becomes a law, will essentially require telecommunication companies and internet service providers (ISPs) to provide automatic refunds to their customers if they experience internet service interruptions for at least 24 hours accumulated in a month.
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“Serbisyo ang binabayaran natin. Kapag hindi ka nakabayad ng iyong bill sa itinakda nilang due date ng pagbabayad, mabilis pa sa alas kwatro ang pagputol nila ng linya. Kung hindi rin naman nila matutumbasan ang serbisyong binabayaran natin, dapat ikaltas ito sa ating mga bayarin,” the Senator said.
Estrada also asked why would people pay for a service that they weren’t able to receive. He also highlighted that people need a fast, accessible, and reliable internet connection now more than ever.
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The law aims to amend Section 20 of the Republic Act 7925 or the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines to add a new provision that will mandate a refund credit to a customer that has experienced service disruption and outage for an aggregate period of 24 hours or more within the same month.
This refund credit should also be available to prepaid users.
Estrada emphasized how genuine accessibility can only be gained if internet services are “regular, reliable, consistent, uninterrupted, and fast.”
The senator added that the new goal of the new measure is to “implement fair charging of services of telcos and ISPs to the consumers.”