#ntc memorandum

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has released guidelines for the mandatory unlocking of mobile phones and devices after its lock-in period. The Memorandum Circular 01-05-2019 dated May 31, 2019, details the rules and regulations on unlocking of mobile phones and devices. According to the memorandum, "PTEs that fail to comply with any of the obligations shall be a cause for the imposition of applicable penalties provided in subsisting laws, rules and regulations." Globe and PLDT-Smart told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) that they will comply with the policy. In December 2018, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has ordered the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to promulgate rules and regulations for telco entities to mandatory unlock phones and devices after its lock-in period. When I first read about that proposed NTC circular about "Guidelines on the Provision of Contents, Information, Applications, and Electronic Games", I shrugged it off because it was obviously referring to the mobile telecoms industry. However, there were a lot of allegations flying around that this will affect all the millions of bloggers, forum posters, Friendster users and YouTubers in the Philippines if the NTC will require them to pay a license fee (amounting to Php6,300). And while the definition of Content Developers was very broad ("persons or entities creating contents"), NTC's definition of Content ("all types of contents delivered to/accessed by the users/subscribers such as music, ring tones, logos, video clips, etc.") was obviously focused on mobile content and not content over the internet. Read more in our articles including "NTC releases guidelines on mandatory unlocking of mobile phones" and "Where that NTC Circular might affect Bloggers?".