An Act Requiring Mobile Service Providers to Provide Nationwide Mobile Number Portability to Subscribers

Seventeenth Congress
Third Regular Session

Begun and held in Metro Manila, on Monday, the twenty-third day of July, two thousand eighteen.

REPUBLIC ACT No. 11202

An Act Requiring Mobile Service Providers to Provide Nationwide Mobile Number Portability to Subscribers

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippine Congress Assembled:

Section 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the "Mobile Number Portability Act".

Section 2. Declaration of Policy. - It is the declared policy of the State to recognize the primary role of the private sector as an engine of economic growth and to guarantee the right of individuals and private entities to own, establish, and operate economic enterprises. The Constitution provides that the use of property bears a social function where all economic agents shall contribute to the common good. The right of private entities is therefore subject to the duty of the State to intervene when the common good so requires, including the duty to regulate the acquisition, ownership, use, and disposition of private property through the prohibition of monopolies and combinations in restraint of trade or unfair competition.

Section 3. Guiding Principles for Implementation. - The following shall serve as guiding principles in the implementation of this Act:

Section 4. Definition of Terms. - As used in this Act:

Section 5. Interpretation. - Any doubt in the interpretation of any provision of this Act and its implementing rules and regulations (IRR) shall be liberally interpreted in a manner mindful of the rights and interests of the subscriber availing of MNP.

Section 6. Obligation of Public Telecommunications Entities (PTE). - It shall be the obligation of every PTE to:

Section 7. Obligation of the Recipient Provider. - Upon receipt of the MNP application, the recipient provider shall transmit the same to the donor provider for the purpose of clearing the mobile number for porting. It shall activate the subscriber’s ported number under its network within twenty-four (24) hours upon notification that the mobile number has been cleared for porting. If the recipient provider is a VNO, it will first transmit the MNP application to its host PTE, who shall then proceed with carrying out the porting process. The VNO shall be responsible for any interaction with its subscriber and the donor provider for the duration of the porting process. The porting process shall be deemed complete upon the activation of the mobile number under the network of the recipient provider.

Section 8. Obligation of the Donor Provider. - It shall be the obligation of every donor provider to:

Section 9. Non-imposition of Interconnection Fee or Charge. - Consistent with the basic premise of this legislation to promote consumer welfare by fostering freedom of choice, no interconnection fee or charge shall be imposed by any mobile service provider for domestic calls and SMS made by a subscriber after the effectivity of this Act.

Section 10. Administrative Fines and Penalties. - The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is hereby authorized to impose the following fines for violations of this Act:

In case the mobile service provider is a VNO, and it is proven that it failed to comply with any of its obligations, including delay in the transmission of a porting application to its host PTE or unjust refusal to process an MNP application from its subscribers, the same penalties shall apply. In case it is proven that the host PTE delayed or unjustly refused to process a porting application transmitted by a VNO, the host PTE shall be solidarily liable for such offense and the same penalties shall apply.

The NTC is also hereby authorized to award the subscriber damages not to exceed Forty thousand pesos (₱40,000.00). The NTC shall impose and collect the appropriate fines from the mobile service providers who are in violation of this Act. The amount to be collected from the fines shall be remitted to the National Treasury.

Section 11. Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR). - Within ninety (90) days from the effectivity of this Act, the NTC, as the government entity mandated to implement nationwide MNP, shall coordinate with the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the National Privacy Commission, the Philippine Competition Commission, and other concerned agencies, and promulgate rules and regulations and other issuances as may be necessary to ensure the effective implementation of this Act.

Within six (6) months from the promulgation of the rules and regulations, mobile service providers shall comply with the provisions of this Act and set up a mechanism for the purpose of implementing nationwide MNP.

The rules and regulations shall provide an expeditious framework to govern all relevant aspects of MNP including, but not limited to, the following factors: (a) the most appropriate, efficient, and cost-effective porting scheme to be adopted; (b) the specific rights and obligations of subscribers, the donor and recipient providers, and other parties to the porting process; (c) the coordinated procedure to be followed by each party in processing a mobile number porting application, including a scheme for porting notifications as may be required and the specific time limits given to every party to complete the required steps in the entire porting process which process shall, in no case, exceed forty-eight (48) hours; and (d) the measures to ensure the least amount of disruption of service to the consumer when implementing MNP.

The rules and regulations shall also prescribe a mediation procedure before the one-stop shop of the NTC to accept customer complaints of denied or delayed MNP, where the NTC may mediate between subscribers and mobile service providers to facilitate MNP and where the NTC may, after granting both parties due process, resolve to either compel or deny MNP.

Section 12. Separability Clause. - If any provision of this Act is held invalid or unconstitutional, the other provisions not affected thereby shall remain in full force and effect.

Section 13. Repealing Clause. - All laws, decrees, executive orders, proclamations, rules and regulations, and issuances,or parts thereof which are inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, are hereby repealed, amended or modified accordingly.

Section 14. Effectivity. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in the Official Gazette or in any newspaper of general circulation.

Approved,

GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO
Speaker of the House of Representatives

VICENTE C. SOTTO III
President of the Senate

This Act which is a consolidation of Senate Bill No. 1636 and House Bill No. 7652 was passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on November 21, 2018 and November 20, 2018, respectively.

DANTE ROBERTO P. MALING
Acting Secretary General
House of Representatives

MYRA MARIE D. VILLARICA
Secretary of the Senate

Approved: February 8, 2019

(Sgd.) RODRIGO ROA DUTERTE
President of the Philippines