The Senate of the Philippines conclusively approved Senate Bill No. 1636 or “The Lifetime Cellphone Number Act” which will allow users to have their cellphone number for life, even if they change a network provider or subscription plans.
The bill was conceded with 20 yes votes and no abstention nor negative votes.
Under the said bill, public telecommunication entities (PTEs) in the country must allow consumers the freedom of mobile number manageability.
This will allow consumers to transfer from service provider to another service provider without shouldering a charge or payment and change subscription plans, either from postpaid to prepaid and vice versa.
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According to Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, Senate Bill No. 1636 author and chairman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, “The bill would give consumers them the freedom to choose the provider that would give the best value for their money without having to lose or change their mobile numbers.”
PTEs must comply within 24 hours or else, shall be penalized with up to Php1 million.
Rest assured that in accordance with this bill, is also the implementation of the Data Privacy Act of 2012 which will keep the consumer’s profile confidential.
Via: CNN Philippines
Finally, This feature is called number portability in other countries, and will ensure competition, and hence lower prices. We just need to ensure very strict ID and account verification processes to prevent our numbers being hijacked. Prepaid plans should also be properly ID’d, so govt can run after scammers, illegal marketeers, and those fake pasa-loads requesters.
Next, let’s bring in MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators). Independent 3rd party providers who buy wholesale airtime/bandwidths from the 2 (or soon to be 3) main telcos, and provide the same services to consumers, without having to setup their own network infrastructure. This should really heat up the competition.
actually this idea is GOOD!
each person would be given his/her phone number, may it be postpaid/prepaid, and that would remain his/her number for life, much like SSS TIN #,
but i hope government would be strict on getting a number =) where in at least a person should submit proper identification