TABUK CITY, Kalinga –
Congress was urged by internet users here to probe if Commissioner Gamaliel
Cordoba and other officials of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)
are fit to lead the agency tasked to regulate and supervise telecom companies
(telcos).
In a letter addressed
to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel 3rd, Senate Public Services Committee
Chairman Grace Poe, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and House Committee on
Information and Communications Technology Chairman Victor Yap, 30 Internet
users here accused Cordoba of sitting on two NTC orders which they claimed as
vital for protection of Internet subscribers.
They said the NTC
memoranda were intended to protect users from the “opaque, deceptive and
opportunistic manner the telcos deal with users and the public.”
The first issuance,
which Cordoba signed on July 15, 2011, directs broadband service providers to
disclose minimum broadband/Internet connection speeds and service reliability
and service rates on their advertisements, flyers, brochures and service agreements.
“This is intended to
stop the practice of telcos of enticing subscribers through the advertisement
of their appealing maximum speeds which in truth can only be experienced in the
dead of the night while the rest of the day, the signal could go down to or
even lower than 10 percent of the advertised speed,” the letter said.
Meanwhile, a circular
dated August 13, 2015 upholds the right of users to be informed of the quality
of the broadband/Internet connection service being provided.
Lawyer Errol Comafay,
one of the signatories, said right to information is a constitutionally
protected right and in this modern age, people access information through the
Internet which makes it imperative for the government to ensure efficient and
reliable Internet service.
“How can the
government do this when the agency charged with supervising the operations of
the telcos could not even implement simple measures it has crafted?” Comafay
asked.
He said apart from the
move to have Congress investigate NTC officials, Tabuk City internet users have
a pending case against Cordoba before the Ombudsman for ignoring their
complaint against Smart filed on Nov. 10, 2015.
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