(ABS-CBN NEWS) MANILA — Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is seeking to require telecommunication companies (telcos) and internet service providers (ISPs) to refund their subscribers who experience service interruptions for at least 24 hours in a month.
Under Senate Bill No. 2074 or the proposed “Refund for Internet and Telecommunications Service Outages and Disruptions Act,” the refund will be pro-rated or may be distributed, or assessed proportionately.
It will also amend Republic Act 7925 or the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines.
“Public telecommunications entities, including [ISPs], shall, on a prorated 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 twenty-four (24) hours or more – within a month,” the bill read.
“The ISPs and public telecommunications entities concerned shall not require the customer to take any action in order to receive a refund credit or bill adjustment under this section; (b) the refund credit granted under the circumstances mentioned above shall likewise be granted to customers subscribing to a service on a prepaid basis,” it added.
Estrada said the proposed legislation aims to provide “fair charging of services.”
“Genuine accessibility can only be achieved if the connection services are regular, reliable, consistent, uninterrupted, and fast to allow continuity of activities and interconnection among different users. This measure intends to implement fair charging of services of telcos and ISPs to the consumers,” he said in a statement.
“It is important that they receive the service that is worth every cent that they pay, and they will not be charged for the service that they were not able to avail of.”