{"id":90553,"date":"2017-02-21T03:19:22","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T08:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=90553"},"modified":"2017-02-21T03:19:22","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T08:19:22","slug":"telco-giant-must-subscribe-to-our-laws-poe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/02\/21\/telco-giant-must-subscribe-to-our-laws-poe\/","title":{"rendered":"Telco giant must subscribe to our laws\u2014Poe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Before<\/a>
Before telecommunications giant Smart Communications could extend its franchise for another 25 years, Sen. Grace Poe on Monday said that they will first have to prove that they are subscribing to Philippine laws.
(Photo: Grace Poe\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u2014Before telecommunications giant Smart Communications could extend its franchise for another 25 years, Sen. Grace Poe on Monday said that they will first have to prove that they are subscribing to Philippine laws.<\/p>\n

Poe, chair of the Senate Committee on Public Services, made this remark during the first hearing on Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri\u2019s Senate Bill No. 1302, which seeks to extend Smart\u2019s franchise for another 25 years.<\/p>\n

Present in the hearing were stakeholders who aired their views, regulators who were asked if Smart has indeed complied with its duties which were part of the conditions to be given their existing franchise, and public interest groups or subscribers to gauge the telco\u2019s service.<\/p>\n

Poe said their comments and suggestions would help the committee in crafting the bill that will be eventually be endorsed to the plenary for debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Smart has 70 percent of the country as customers does not mean that we in the Senate have no other option but rubberstamp our conformity with the bill that was passed by the House,\u201d Poe said in her opening statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmart may have 70 million subscribers but it must also subscribe to our laws,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

She also asked Smart several questions including whether the country\u2019s internet speed has improved or whether it remained stuck in limbo like \u201ctraffic in EDSA\u201d, and sought for updates on the rollout of cellular sites.<\/p>\n

The senator noted the grant of franchise will be anchored on the guarantee of consistent good service and expressed hope that the telco could provide people with even better service in the coming days noting that it is also a solution to the country\u2019s traffic crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish Smart can provide better service, as, I have repeatedly said, solving the traffic crisis will be a technology-aided enterprise,\u201d Poe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmart is one information highway people can detour to when it would be impossible for them to physically go from one place and another. But we can only create an army of happy telecommuters if internet speed is fast and reliable,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

She further said that she wanted to make sure that other telco companies can enter the playing field as to encourage competition and drive companies to provide better service.<\/p>\n

At present, the House has already approved their version of the measure. The Senate, however, has yet to do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u2014Before telecommunications giant Smart Communications could extend its franchise for another 25 years, Sen. Grace Poe on Monday said that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":88151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,16,95],"tags":[3662,15532],"class_list":["post-90553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-grace-poe","tag-smart-communications","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}