NTC seeks P1-million fine a day vs ‘erring’ telcos
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has urged Congress to increase from P200 to P1 million a day the amount of fine against “erring” telecommunication companies (telcos).
NTC Commissioner Gamaliel A. Cordoba, during the deliberations of the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s (DICT) and its attached agencies’ 2017 proposed P3.5-billion budget on Wednesday, said a heavy penalty against telcos will address poor signal and slow internet connection in the Philippines.
The NTC is one of the attached agencies of the newly created DICT.
Sought for comment, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. Spokesman Ramon R. Isberto said his group, including mobile-services providers Smart and Sun, will review the issue.
“We are deferring comment for now to allow us time to study the matter,” he said when sought for comment by the BusinessMirror. Globe officials, on the other hand, were unavailable for comment.
Cordoba added: “We really need the help of Congress here in amending the law on penalties because when we asked the Neda [National Economic Development Authority], this P200 a day in 1936 is equivalent to P1,000,076 in the present day. If the penalty is this huge, we’re sure that the telecommunication companies will step up.”
The Public Service Act imposed a “measly” P200 per day on violations committed by telcos.
“Without a new law, all we can do now is shame campaign, where they publish the quality of service that telcos have been providing based on their equipment. There is a pending legislation on this filed last Congress, so we are hoping that this will see through,” Cordoba added.
“We do the test on a monthly basis, and we publish it in newspapers and tri-media. So, instead of implementing the P200 penalty, we do the shame game,” he said.
According to Cordoba, neighboring countries, like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Myanmar and Afghanistan, are investing on their telecommunication infrastructures, while the Philippines has not spent a single centavo to improve it.
“In the Philippines, if you would ask us how much the government spends on telco infrastructure, the answer is zero,” he said.
The Philippines has the second-slowest average download speed among 22 Asian countries with 3.6 megabytes per second (mbps), next to Afghanistan with 2.52 mbps.
The Philippines, with 3.6 mbps, lags behind Lao PDR (4.0 mbps), Indonesia (4.1 mbps), Myanmar (4.9 mbps), Brunei Darussalam (4.9 mbps), Malaysia (5.5 mbps) and Cambodia (5.7 mbps).
Requirements
Meanwhile, Cordoba told lawmakers strict requirements from local government units (LGUs) have contributed to bad services of these telcos. “One of the reasons we’re having problems is that we’re having problems with some of the LGUs, some LGUs asked for 32 permits before they allow telco to build cell sites, while we only give one,” he said.
For his part, Information Secretary Rodolfo A. Salalima urged LGUs to simplify the requirements for telcos.
“It’s really the LGUs. Three days should be enough for the LGUs to issue a permit,” said Salalima.
Inadequate budget
Liberal Party Rep. Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar said it is unfortunate that the newly created DICT will be unable to fulfill its mandate, if given the grossly inadequate budget earmarked in the proposed 2017 appropriations.
He said the P2.9-billion allocation for DICT’s total expenditure next year is barely enough to run a bureau.
“A budget of P2.9 billion is obviously insufficient for [a] supposedly independent department expected to operate full-blast next year,” Evardone, one of the principal authors of the law creating DICT, said.
He said the Congress created a stand-alone department, separate from the Department of Transportation, to speed up the development of information and communications technology in the country.
Among DICT’s priority projects are to provide free Wi-Fi in public places and provide public access to Internet in remote barangays where there is poor or no mobile phone signal or network services available.
“Why give a minuscule budget for a department given an awesome mandate? Billions of dollars are needed to roll out infra projects to upgrade Internet access and speed,” Evardone said.
The lawmaker also said that DICT is tasked to implement e-governance, ensure high-tech connectivity between agencies, and accelerate delivery of the government services.
Evardone, also chairman of Committee on Bank, said the DICT is also tasked to monitor cyber-security and cybercrime cases. “In fact, the magnitude of the cybercrime problem is bigger than the extent of illegal drugs,” he said.
“What do we expect to accomplish with a pauper’s budget? Meanwhile, another department received a more than P100-billion increase in its budget next year despite its underspending every year,” Evardone said. He also called on Congress to increase the DICT budget to a reasonable amount that will enable it to perform its intended functions.
With Lorenz S. Marasigan
Comment here