NTC sees benefits of proposed law on mobile numbers
The proposed Mobile Number Portability Act could attract additional telecommunications companies (telcos) to enter the Philippine market, a National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) official said on Tuesday.
During the Senate committee on economic affairs hearing, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who chairs the panel and filed the bill last November 2016, asked NTC Deputy Commissioner Edgardo Cabarrios whether the measure could attract additional players and competition in the telco industry.
“Yes. Saturated na ang market natin so new player coming in would have to get subscribers from existing service providers and providing them with this law could easily attract subscribers to switch providers,” Cabarrios told Gatchalian.
According to the senator, the measure would require every public telecommunications entity (PTE) to provide subcribers nationwide with mobile number portability (MNP) to facilitate the easy movement of subscribers from one service provider to another without losing their existing mobile numbers.
The said system, he said, would not only retain one’s “mobile identity” but also spur competition and efficiency between and among PTEs.
In September 2008, Cabarrios said the “NTC shelved plans for mobile portability in the market” because it was “technically feasible, but not financially viable.”
Cabarrios reiterated the same point during the Tuesday’s hearing but said they support the measure.
In order to execute the plan, he said subscribers should register their mobile numbers to a database of ported numbers.
“Calls or text will be routed to the network to reach the subscriber. There are technical remedies but what really matters is the cost,” Cabarrios said.
“It will take a little more time to establish a call between a number and a ported number,” he added.
The NTC official also raised that if the telcos would be shouldering the cost, “naturally it will be passed down to consumers in whatever manner.”
“Yung cost dun lang sa mag-ssubscribe so medyo mataas po yun kaya baka walang mag-subscribe… The contribution from each subscribers would be low if more would subscribe so I think magiging viable naman ito,” he added.
Meanwhile, service providers Smart Communications, Inc. and Globe Telecom said they supported the bill but pointed out that the establishment of a third party entity to manage and operate the database should be discussed further. The same goes for the technical aspects of the mobile number portability bill.
“There would probably be a necessity to have a third party or clearing house for the database. Personal information of users should also be discussed. On the calls that it should be free, most of the time when it’s free it gets abused so I guess there should be a nominal fee can be charged,” lawyer Roy Ibay, representative of Smart, said.
Globe representative Ariel Tubayan raised the same issues but said they support the measure.
Gatchalian said the same system has been established for years in countries like the United Kingdom, and United States of America and in Asian nations like Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. /cbb
