News & Updates

The National Telecommunications Commission (“NTC”) issued Memorandum Circular No. 03-06-2019, or the “Rules and Regulations Implementing Republic Act. No. 11202, otherwise known as the “Mobile Number Portability Act” (“IRR”)”. The IRR took effect on 02 July 2019 regarding the following matters:

Mobile Number Portability Service Provider (Sec. 3)

Under the IRR, there shall be one Mobile Number Portability Service Provider (“MNPSP”) that will provide the porting services (Sec. 3.1), and the Mobile Service Providers (“MSPs”) shall equally share in the capital expenditure of the MNPSP (Sec. 3.2). The MNPSP shall be chosen by the MSPs not later than 30 September 2019 (Sec. 3.3).

Qualification and Requisites for Mobile Number Portability (Sec. 5)

The sole requirement under the Mobile Number Portability Act for a subscriber to avail of porting services is that there is “no existing financial obligation to the donor provider” [Section 4(d)]. The IRR qualifies this as follows:

• The subscriber has no outstanding payments due the Donor Provider[1] before the date of application for porting;
• Proof that the subscriber is the owner of the mobile number;
  • For postpaid subscribers:
    1. Valid government identification card with photograph and signature; and
    2. Latest billing statement from donor provider.
  • For prepaid subscribers:
    1. SIM bed from where the SIM was removed for insertion to the cellphone;
    2. Registration of the prepaid SIM in accordance with the requirements of the MSP; and
    3. Confirmation of the prepaid SIM registration through a one Time Pin (OTP) with ten (10) minutes validity period to confirm the possession of the SIM.

In addition to these qualifications, the following requisites should be met:

• A period of at least sixty (60) calendar days has expired from the date of activation of his mobile connection in the case of a mobile number not ported earlier; or from the date of activation of his mobile number after its last porting, in the case of a mobile number which has been ported earlier, as the case may be;
• No pending request for change of ownership of the mobile number; and
• No prohibition from a court of law for the porting of the subject mobile number (Secs. 5.2-5.4).

Grounds for Rejection (Sec. 12)

The application for porting may be denied on any of the following grounds:

• The subscriber has an existing financial obligation;
• The porting request has been made within a period of sixty (60) from the date of activation of a new connection or from date of last porting;
• A request for change of ownership of the mobile number is under process; and
• Porting of the mobile number has been prohibited by a court order, by law, and rules and regulations and/or issuances by the Commission.

Dispute Resolution (Sec. 14)

Parties may resort to dispute resolution held in the NTC Central Office if they cannot or have failed to have reached an agreement (Sec. 14.2; Sec. 14.3.16).

Fees and Charges (Sec. 11) The Mobile Number Portability Act expressly prohibits imposition of interconnection fee to be imposed by an MSP for domestic calls and SMS (Sec. 9). In addition to this, the IRR states that “no fees and charges shall be collected from the MNP applicants and subscribers (Sec. 11.1).” Further, “no fees and charges related to the MNP service shall be collected from the mobile service subscribers (Sec. 11.2).”

[1] Section 11.2 of the IRR defines Donor Provider as follows:

“Donor Provider shall refer to the mobile service provider to whose network the mobile number belongs at the time the subscriber submits a porting applications (sic).”