President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law the bill that will allow cellphone users in the Philippines to maintain their numbers even after switching service providers or subscription plans.
The chief executive signed the Republic Act 11202 or the Mobile Number Portability Act on February 8 but was only made public on Tuesday.
Totally free of charge as per the law, the telecommunications companies in the Philippines should soon allow “qualified subscribers” to keep their mobile number should the subscriber choose to change their service provider. However, section 3 of the new law did not state any specifics on defining what a “qualified subscriber” is, as per the regulations of the newly signed law.
In addition, the new measure also enables the subscriber to shift their subscription plans from prepaid to postpaid and/or vice-versa.
The implementing rules and regulations will be created by the National Telecommunications Commission, Department of Information and Communications Technology, National Privacy Commission, Philippine Competition Commission and other concerned agencies.
