Makati City 2nd district Rep. Luis Campos Jr. (Facebook)

Citing the Philippines' perennial slow Internet, Makati City 2nd district Rep. Luis Campos Jr. has revived his proposal to penalize telecommunications companies (telcos) that fail to supply faster Internet speeds to consumers within fixed deadlines.

Under the House Bill (HB) No.10215, telcos that are unable to reach compulsory Internet speed targets would be slapped with a regulatory fine of up to P1 million per day, or P365 million per year, until they achieve full compliance.

The measure is titled, "An Act amending the powers of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and classifying the Internet as a basic service, amending for the purpose Republic Act (RA) No.7925, otherwise known as the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines".

“The Philippines still has one of the slowest average mobile Internet speeds in Southeast Asia, and we want to fix this through an act of Congress,” Campos, the husband of Makati Mayor Abby Binay, said in a statement on Sunday, May 26.

In pushing for the swift passage of his bill, Campos invoked “the State’s duty to protect the interest of consumers, including Internet users, promote their general welfare, and to establish standards of conduct for business and industry".

The empowers the NTC to "impose fines against public telecommunications entities within the scope of its regulation, which are found to have violated, violating, or those which have failed or are failing to comply with the terms and conditions of this Act, any certificate, or any order, decision or regulation of the Commission".

It says the erring public telecommunications entity "shall be subject to a fine amounting to the total actual loss or overcharging as determined by the Commission for every day during which such default or violation continues, or if it is not feasible to quantify the offense, to a fine amounting to one million pesos (P1,000,000.00) for every day during which such default or violation continues until the amount of fully paid".

"If the telecommunication entity has a gross annual income not exceeding ten million (P10,000,000.00), the penalty that may be imposed shall be equivalent to one percent (1%) to two percent (2%) of its gross annual income.

"The Commission is hereby authorized and empowered to impose such fine, after due notice and hearing," it said.

The Philippines as of April 2024 had an average mobile Internet speed of only 32.37 Mbps, compared to Thailand’s 45.05 Mbps, Vietnam’s 50.88 Mbps, Malaysia’s 91.69 Mbps, Singapore’s 101.43 Mbps, and Brunei’s 102.41 Mbps, according to the Speedtest Global Index by Ookla.

Mbps is short for megabits per second – a measure of network transmission or data transfer speed.

The Philippines now ranks No. 11 worldwide in absolute number of Internet users, with an estimated 85 million Filipinos browsing the web, mostly using their mobile phones, or a penetration rate of 74 percent of the population.

The bill reintroduced by Campos seeks to expressly classify Internet connection as a “basic service” within the jurisdiction and regulatory power of the NTC.

Internet connection is currently considered a value-added service (VAS). This explains why the NTC lacks the power to impose higher standards and mandatory improvements.