DICT backs refunds for telco, ISP disruptions

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) supports a proposal to require telecommunication companies and internet service providers (ISPs) to give refunds for service outages and interruptions.

“DICT supports responsible delivery of telco services to Filipinos. It is only just and necessary that Filipinos get the quality of service they pay for,” DICT Secretary Gregorio Honasan said.

Under Senate Bill 2092, public telecommunications entities and ISPs must “on a pro-rated basis, provide a refund credit to a customer, or adjust a customer’s bill, who has experienced a service outage or disruption for an aggregate period of 24 hours or more within a month.”

The refund credit shall likewise be granted to customers subscribing to a service on a prepaid basis.

The bill, which the DICT has expressed support for, seeks to amend Republic Act 7925 or the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines passed into law in 1995.

Honasan said the DICT recognizes the challenges that telcos and ISPs face in the rollout of their services in the country.

“Building their own towers is not only very costly but is also time-consuming, given the amount of processing and construction work needed for each. Because of this, the private sector tends to invest in areas that will ensure return on investment, which are mostly in populated and urbanized areas,” he said.

But with the common tower policy initiative, Honasan said private telcos and ISPs are given better opportunities to provide internet service to other areas at lower costs and risks.

Honasan said the common tower policy is among the DICT’s initiatives to provide assistance to the private sector in fast- tracking their infrastructure rollout.

The policy is expected to widen the base of common towers and will speed up the deployment of internet across the country as it allows and encourages telcos and Internet service providers to share cell towers.