MANILA, Philippines — A bill mandating telecommunication companies to provide a refund mechanism for service outages and disruptions has been filed in the Senate.
Senator Lito Lapid filed Senate Bill No. 2092, which seeks to amend Republic Act No. 7925 or the Public Telecommunications Policy of the Philippines.
“For an Internet-dependent, data-driven world where almost all aspects of our daily life rely on being ‘online’ and ‘connected,’ service outages, disruptions and interruptions cause discomfort, lost opportunities, or worse, lost profits and income,” Lapid said in the bill’s explanatory note read.
“Nationwide outages had even disrupted Senate committee hearings. In fact, data from a website monitoring real-time status and outage information revealed that for a single day, reports of outages for certain Philippine internet service providers (ISPs) peaked to as high as 50 outages,” it added.
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Despite the frequency of service outages and, Lapid noted that consumers “foot the bill for their monthly or pre-paid internet subscriptions without adjustments or refunds for such occurrences.”
“[T]hey are paying for a service that they have not enjoyed or used for hours, if not, even days through no fault on their part,” he added.
