Lawmakers led by Davao City 1st District Rep. Paolo Duterte are pushing for the passage of a law that would require public telecommunications entities (PTEs) and internet service providers (ISPs) to institute a refund mechanism for service outages and disruptions.

House of Representatives Bill 8480, or the Refund for Internet and Telecommunications Service Outages and Disruptions Act, was filed by Duterte with Benguet Rep. Eric Yap, ACT-CIS Party-list Reps. Jocelyn Tulfo and Edvic Yap, and Quezon City 2nd District Rep. Ralph Tulfo.

“While the telecommunications industry has continued to flourish in the country, internet connection and reliability of service remains a persistent problem, along with exorbitant costs paid by consumers for Internet service,” Duterte said in a statement on Wednesday.

“HB (House Bill) 8480 will ensure that subscribers pay only for the service they get and push telecom firms to provide fast, reliable and uninterrupted Internet connection.”

Under the proposed measure, PTEs and ISPs are mandated to institute a mechanism that would automatically provide customers refund credits or downward adjustments in their bills on a pro-rated basis whenever service outages or disruptions occur for an aggregate period of 24 hours or more within a one-month billing cycle.

The PTEs and ISPs shall not require the customer to take any action to receive a refund credit or bill adjustment.

The refund credit shall be granted to both postpaid and prepaid subscribers.

Telecom firms and ISPs found by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to have violated the bill’s provisions will be fined between PHP200,000 and PHP2 million for each violation.

For violators whose gross annual income does not exceed PHP10 million, the penalty shall be equivalent to 1 percent to 2 percent of their gross annual income.

The bill states that the NTC may revoke the Provisional Authority or Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity of PTEs, or cancel the registration of an ISP for repeated violations, whichever applies, “including the waiver of pre-termination fees of affected subscribers and the timely disbursement of any remaining credits from excessive downtime.” (PNA)