By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
Along with my determined effort to extract an admission from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) that it has miserably failed to implement NTC Memorandum Order No. 07-07-2011 which was the subject of my second to the last column, I am also trying to find out what they have done with a very vital consumer-protection provision of the more recent issuance Memorandum Circular No. 07-08-2015. The memorandum sets 256 Kbps as the minimum speed of Internet connection in the country and one of its requirements is for the telcos to deliver to customers their average data connection speeds in a given areas otherwise they will be liable for false advertising.
This means that to implement the provision, the NTC must have data of the average data connection speeds of the telcos per area in the country. So on May 29, I wrote Deputy Commissioner/Regulation Branch Head Edgardo Cabarios asking for the said data specially for those of the Cordillera and Region 2. In the letter, I cited his own statement quoted in
in the story “ISPs face fines if broadband speeds fall below minimum” in the September 14, 2015 issue of the Business World that under the MC, telcos are required to disclose their average data rates per area and if they are found to be unable to deliver the said speeds, they are liable for false advertising.
Infuriatingly, in response, on June 2, I was furnished copy of an email from the Consumer Welfare and Protection Division (CWPD) directing Cordillera Regional Director Dante Vengua to act on my inquiry. Imagine the head of the office in-charge of regulation responsibilities of the NTC referring to another office an inquiry on the implementation of an issuance! It’s just another of the runaround games the agency plays on the public, I fumed. But I kept my cool and let it be on the principle of “give them more rope to hang themselves” and after all, in the letter, I also asked for the latest speed results in Tabuk City. It would be interesting what the neér-do-well NTC-CAR would do this time, I told myself.
Back of my mind was an earlier experience with the regional office. I remembered that way back in 2015, after learning that in connection with MC 07-08-2015, they conducted validation of the broadband speeds in areas in region including Tabuk City, I have also asked for their readings in the city and they sent me what was supposed to be the output of their activity and it contained no figures for Tabuk! What did their people who came to do the measurements do during their trip to Kalinga?
In fairness, this time around, after almost a month, I received a furnished copy of a letter from the NTC-CAR to Cabarios submitting results of its validation of the signal strength in the Tabuk carried out by its engineers on June 21-23, 2017. Here are some samples of the results: 3:24 PM, June 21, 2017, City Hall: Smart – 380 Kbps, Globe – 80 Kbps; 4:13 PM, June 21, 2017, Golden Berries, San Juan: Smart – 1.98 Mbps, Globe – 3 Mbps; 7:28 AM, June 22, 2017, Golden Berries: Smart – 310 Kbps, Globe – 290 Kbps; 4:27 PM, June 21, 2017, Land Bank of the Philippines, Bulanao: Smart – 1.96 Mbps, Globe – 2 Mbps; 8:01 AM, June 23, 2017, Magsaysay: Smart – 70 Kbps; Globe – 1 Mbp; 8:23 AM, June 22, 2017, Agbannawag: Smart – 7.28 Mbps, Globe – 6.68 Mbps; and 4:48, June 21, 2017, Bacras, Bulanao: Smart – 3.16 Mbps, Globe – 290 Kbps. (For interested Facebook friends, the entire report is posted on my Timeline.)
Missing from the communication is the average data connection of the two telcos in the Tabuk City area which means in as far as the application of the provision of NTC MC No. 07-08-2015 is concerned, the compliance of the NTC-CAR is useless because there is no way to find out if the Globe and Smart are delivering their average data connection speed in the city. But then in fairness to NTC-CAR, if Cabarios does not have the said information, how would a mere regional office has it?
On June 29, I emailed Cabarios to “gently remind” of this part of my May 29, 2017 letter:
“May I have the respective average data rates per area data of the telcos specially the areas in the Cordillera Administrative Region and Region 2. In the event that they still have to disclose their average data rates per area information in compliance to the MC, may I know what action has the Commission taken against them in that regards.”
I also invoked in the letter Section 9 (d) of the Freedom of Information Order which reads: “The government office shall respond to a request fully compliant with requirements of sub-section (a) hereof as soon as practicable but not exceeding fifteen (15) working days from the receipt thereof. The response mentioned above shall contain the decision of the office or office concerned to deny or grant access to the information requested.”
I pointed out that the action of his office of referring my letter to the NTC-CAR does not meet the requirement of the sub-section because in the first place, said office is not in position to act on paragraph 2 of the letter.
I also noted that as far as I am informed, it is the Regulation Branch of the NTC which is on top the implementation of the regulations of the agency.
I do not expect Cabarios to answer but I no longer care. With the way his office tried to give me the slip in such a simplistic manner, he has a lot of explaining to do one of these days.**
