It is always a huge problem when people try to change their mobile number. For one, you need to save all the numbers that are stored in your sim card (this can be solved by the way, if you save all of the number via Google contacts). Although such problem may have a solution, you are still left with the task of informing everyone in your contact list that you have a new mobile number. If you only have five or ten people in your contact list (lucky you or unlucky you) then it would not be a problem however if you have hundreds of contact numbers and you need to keep in touch with all of them then start dedicating time in informing them.
The Mobile Portability Act
These are just some of the problems that the mobile portability act seeks to solve, not to mention the fact that it will help in national security. Since it is easy to purchase just any SIM Card, people who utilize the SIM card to perpetrate a crime are not easily traceable, the mobile portability act is the start of controlling or deterring people from using SIM Cards to perpetrate a crime.
This Act was authored by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, the Mobile Portability Act or also known as the “Lifetime Cellphone Number Act”. It was conceptualized with the aim of helping subscribers solve the problems they normally encounter whenever they change numbers. Another feature of this newly signed law is that it allows SIM Card owners to freely change Telecom Companies without losing their numbers.
Just yesterday, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Mobile Portability Act into law. The law mandates Public Telecommunication Entities to provide the service of maintaining the mobile number of their subscribers even if they have changed mobile service provider or if they have changed their type of subscription, for example from prepaid to postpaid type of subscription. The law further instructs Public Telecommunication Entities to provide the public with information on how to avail the mobile portability feature, the porting process as well as the application requirements.
The government department in-charge in the formulation of its implementing rules and regulations is the National Telecommunications Commission and they were mandated to come up with said guidelines in six months. The NTC will also act as a mediator between the subscriber and the Public Telecommunication Entity should complaints become apparent. Public Telecommunication Entities who will not comply to this Act will face a find of up to one million pesos and revocation of their franchise.
