Gregorio B. Honasan II, the ICT secretary, said the bill, which seeks to liberalize the industry, will help lower barriers to market entry, fast-track and lower the cost of deploying broadband facilities, promote infrastructure sharing, and make spectrum management more fair and transparent.
“The DICT supports any policies aimed at spurring the growth of information and communications technology in the country. As the country transitions to the new normal, it is high time that we update our laws and policies to keep up with the digital times,” he said.
The bill aims to increase and promote fair and open competition in the industry, which could potentially lower costs and increase service levels.
Should it be passed into law, the piece of legislation will mandate the interconnection among data transmission participants to avoid dominance by a single player or by a group of data providers.
Aside from this, the bill also mandates that there should be at least two providers at any given layer. Under the bill, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is mandated to promulgate policies, rules and regulation to ensure and promote infrastructure sharing and co-location.
The telco regulator is mandated to maximize the utilization of radio frequencies by ensuring the equitable distribution of frequencies to registered data transmission participants.
The NTC is also tasked to set data transmission standards, and impose a fine of up to P5 million to those who fail to comply with the minimum service requirement. It may remove participants who fail to comply with the prescribed performance standards for three consecutive years.