Lawmaker pushes bill mandating refunds for internet outages

A BILL mandating refunds for consumers hit by internet connectivity disruptions was filed at the House of Representatives, in a bid to strengthen consumer rights in a country long plagued by slow and unreliable internet service.

House Bill No. 5318 seeks to grant refund credits to consumers who experience at least 24 hours of internet service disruptions within a month, excluding scheduled outages from the proposed scheme.

“Consumers have a right to uninterrupted service and any outage beyond reasonable duration,” Quezon Rep. Reynante U. Arrogancia said in the explanatory note of the measure, which was filed on Oct. 3.

Filipinos pay an average of P2,049 per month for internet subscriptions, according to 2024 data from Cable.co.uk, ranking the Philippines as the seventh most expensive country for broadband in East and Southeast Asia.

All internet service providers are covered under the measure and are required to automatically apply bill adjustments when service disruptions reach 24 hours, “without need of demand from a consumer,” according to the bill.

Telecommunications companies must issue a 48-hour maintenance notice to exempt downtimes from the mandatory refund scheme.

Companies that fail to issue rebates to affected users face fines ranging from P50,000 to P200,000 for each violation, the proposal stated, and repeated violations could result in the revocation of a service provider’s congressional franchise.

The measure would compel telecommunications companies to uphold service reliability standards, reinforcing their responsibility to maintain consistent and uninterrupted internet access for consumers, said Ronald B. Gustilo, national campaigner for digital advocacy network Digital Pinoys.

“It’s high time that a refund mechanism for lost service be put into place and the government should pass this as soon as possible,” he said in a Viber message.

He said the refund system should be transparent, recommending it should be computed by multiplying the monthly internet fee by the number of hours lost, then dividing it by 730 – the average number of hours in a month.

He added that internet service providers should provide periodic reports to the National Telecommunications Commission for auditing and ensuring compliance with service standards. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio