Sen. Lapid files bill for non-expiring mobile data

Senator Lito Lapid has recently filed a bill that seeks to institutionalize the roll-over data allocation to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), removing the expiration of mobile data from promos or packages.

Under Senate Bill 1880 or the Roll-Over Internet Act, all unused data from promos or packages will be carried to succeeding months until the end of the year. Should there be remaining unused data allocations at the end of the year, it will be “converted into rebates which may be used for future subscriptions”.

With this, subscribers will get the value of their money from subscribing to the promos without losing up to gigabytes of data due to its expiration date.

The bill aims to help Filipinos who rely on prepaid and postpaid internet promos with a data cap for online learning and work from home setups during the pandemic. Subscribers with unlimited internet data packages are not covered by the bill.

To ensure strict compliance, the bill also proposes penalties against non-compliant ISPs which requires them to pay fines between PHP 300,000USD 5,112INR 433,380EUR 4,869CNY 37,230 to PHP 1,000,000USD 17,040INR 1,444,600EUR 16,230CNY 124,100. For those who will violate the policy three times or more, there will be revocation of licenses and franchises.

You may read the full Senate bill here.

Currently, digital telco GOMO is offering non-expiry mobile data up to 25GB.

Source: Senate PH