Lifetime Cellphone Number Act
SENATOR WIN GATCHALIAN
Sponsorship Speech
January 15, 2018
Good afternoon, Mr. President and esteemed colleagues. I am delighted to sponsor a legislation whose time has definitely come – The Lifetime Cellphone Number Act. It will give you the power, as a consumer, to carry your cellphone number for life – even if you change service providers. It will also allow you to keep the same cellphone number when switching from your postpaid to a prepaid subscription, and vice versa.
This is technically called Mobile Number Portability – where your cellphone number is “portable” in order to give you the freedom to choose the provider that will give you the best value for your money without losing or changing your number.
How many of us complain about the very poor service that we are getting from our service providers? And yet we stick to them because we do not want to change numbers? As a result, we continue to pay for bad service. Because we do not want the inconvenience of changing numbers; because we fear that we may lose important contacts.
With the Lifetime Cellphone Number Act, the shackles are finally off. We can now walk out of our service providers whose services are so poor that we no longer get our money’s worth. It will be a much easier decision to transfer to the service provider that offers the best customer service, the best network coverage, and the best quality of service.
Sa madaling salita, hindi na po tayo magda-dalawang isip na iwanan ang service provider na hindi tumutupad sa mga pangako. Dahil sa Lifetime Cellphone Number Act, hindi na natin kailangang magtiis dahil madadala na natin ang ating cellphone number kahit lumipat pa tayo sa ibang service provider, o kahit magbago tayo ng subscription from prepaid to postpaid, o postpaid to prepaid.
Indeed, this bill is not just about making it easier for consumers to cut the cord from poor and unbearable telco service. It is also an important recognition of how one’s cellphone number has become so critical to maintaining one’s digital identity. Such that, when the most awaited third player in the telco industry comes along, and proves itself worthy of our money and patronage, we will not choose to stick around and put up with poor service because we do not want to lose our number which has, to some extent, already become our identity.
Mr. President and esteemed colleagues, kung tama man ang sinasabi ng iba na “walang forever” – para sa akin ay mayroon namang “lifetime”. Dahil sa Lifetime Cellphone Number Act, madadala mo na ang iyong cellphone number for life.
Thank you, Mr. President.