The Mobile Number Portability Act has now been signed into law. This means that users can now freely switch providers together with their mobile number given that they don’t have any remaining balance from the provider.
Republic Act No. 11202 also known as the Mobile Number Portability Act has been signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on February 14, 2019 and has been made public today, Tuesday, February 19, 2019.
With the enactment of this law, users can now keep their mobile numbers whenever they are switching providers. Users can even keep their number when changing their subscription from post-paid to pre-paid or the other way around.
Of course, there are some hoops to jump through. In order to keep your number when changing providers, users would need to submit a porting application. After submitting, the previous telco would now start the porting process to the new provider. The porting process should only take around 24 hours.
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In a pro-consumer move, the law also states that telecommunications providers can’t bill its users for interconnection fees for domestic calls and texts. If a provider violates the law, they can be fined up to PhP 1 million if they refuse to follow the Mobile Portability Act.
