The House of Representatives gave its unanimous approval on Tuesday to a bill necessitating telecommunications and internet service providers to implement refund mechanisms for service disruptions and outages.
House Bill 9021, titled the “Refund for Internet and Telecommunications Services Outages and Disruptions Act,” successfully garnered 278 affirmative votes amid the suspension of plenary debates for the 2024 national budget.
The bill, championed by Rep. Toby Tiangco, the chairperson of the Committee on Information and Communications Technology, mandates that all public telecom and internet service providers offer refund credits to customers who experience an internet service outage lasting 24 hours or more.
However, the legislation makes an exception for outages due to scheduled maintenance, provided customers are notified 48 hours in advance.
Notably, the proposed law stipulates that service providers must apply the bill adjustments proactively, eliminating the need for subscribers to demand refunds.
In an effort to ensure compliance, the National Telecommunications Commission is empowered to levy penalties ranging from P50,000 to P200,000 on entities violating the bill. Moreover, repeated offenses could result in the revocation of the violating entity’s license, registration, or franchise.