NTC asks telcos to refund consumers
TACLOBAN CITY — The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in Eastern Visayas, acting on numerous complaints from the consumers, wants two giant telecommunications companies and two local internet service providers to refund their clients due to poor internet service.
In a letter to NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba dated 13 January, NTC regional director Samuel Young requested the commissioner to order Globe Telecom, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and two unnamed internet service providers in the region “to grant equitable bill rebates to all their subscribers affected by the internet service interruptions.”
Many consumers have complained that they were being billed even when their internet service has not been working since 24 December when typhoon Ursula hit the region.
Young said the consumers have to be refunded for the downtime from December 24 up to the time their internet service were fully restored.
He said that based on information from NTC’s enforcement team on the ground, internet services of both Globe and PLDT went offline when their optical fibers were destroyed during the storm “causing significant interruptions in their internet services.”
Young added that PLDT is still conducting an ongoing restoration of their transmission lines while Globe is still in the process of restoring its service lines even when it has already restored its transmission lines.