Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has signed a new act mandating the provision of mobile number portability in the market.
The new act requires Philippines mobile operators to provide free mobile number porting to all customers nationwide, the Philippine Starreported.
Under the new law, telecoms regulator NTC will be required to work with the Department of ICT, the National Privacy Commission and the Philippine Competition Commission to draw up the rules and regulations for the new act within the next three months.
These regulations will include a mechanism for allowing consumers to submit complaints about refusals or delays in providing mobile number portability.
After evaluating the complaint, the NTC may mediate discussions between the subscriber and the mobile operator to facilitate porting, and may resolve to either compel or deny the porting request.
Operators will then have six months to implement the new requirements and ensure they are compliant with the provisions of the act.
The wording of the act notes that its basic goal is to provide consumers with the freedom to choose mobile operators without having to change their numbers, and to encourage competition between mobile operators by encouraging them to provide the most enticing services to consumers.