The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is widening its ₱100,000-a-day fines on Globe, Smart and DITO to the rest of the country — and all three telcos are now pushing back. The regulator said on September 30 that a fresh round of show-cause orders will go out to areas nationwide with the worst mobile signal, while the operators question both the findings and how the penalties were announced.
The dispute is the newest turn in a fight that began last week, when the NTC started fining the three operators over poor mobile broadband in Metro Manila. That original order is covered in our earlier report on the ₱100,000 daily fines.
Fines will not stop at Metro Manila
The NTC confirmed that its enforcement is not limited to the capital. The agency validates mobile broadband speeds nationwide through its regional offices, and it told reporters on September 29 that new show-cause orders will start with cities and municipalities in the National Capital Region and other regions with the highest incidence of "no signal" and "weak signal" results.
The regulator is finalizing its September 2026 revalidation results. Once those are out, corresponding show-cause orders with daily penalties will follow, based on where the signal data is worst. The current cases are docketed as 2026-022 for Smart, 2026-023 for Globe and 2026-024 for DITO. Before fining anyone, the NTC says it had already directed the operators to improve service quality in memoranda dated May 29, August 5 and November 17, 2025.
How each telco is pushing back
Globe rejected the finding that its service has not improved. "We are concerned by the NTC statement saying we have not improved services as the latest DICT report proves otherwise," Globe chief sustainability and corporate communications officer Yoly Crisanto said. The company points to Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) data showing Globe posted a year-high speed of 45.9 Mbps with latency under 20 milliseconds, and says it uses advanced technologies, including satellites, to serve remote areas.
Smart initially said it was not in a position to comment because it had not received the show-cause order letter. It later said it would validate the NTC's findings against its own network data and independent third-party assessments, noting that it kept a "Good" rating with average download speeds of 52.13 Mbps in August 2026.
DITO has opened discussions with the NTC about its show-cause letter, though it did not respond to some press inquiries about the fines.
Where the penalties started
The fines took effect on September 25 after September speed tests showed no significant improvement compared with validations in the first and second quarters of the year. Each operator is being fined ₱100,000 for every day the deficiencies continue, under the NTC's authority in the Public Service Act.
The areas of concern are specific:
- Globe — Manila, Makati and Quezon City
- DITO — San Juan, Pasay and Las Piñas
- Smart — Parañaque, Manila and Pasig
The NTC plans to retest the flagged areas every two weeks and will keep monitoring other parts of Metro Manila.
What this means for your signal
If you live outside Metro Manila, your city could be next on the list — the NTC's expansion targets the places with the most no-signal and weak-signal reports, which is where enforcement pressure has been weakest until now. The telcos, for their part, must submit responses and corrective action plans, and the disagreement over whose speed data counts (the NTC's validation tests or the DICT and third-party reports the operators cite) will shape how long the fines run. The amounts themselves are small next to the industry's spending — telco capital outlays this year are projected in the billions of dollars, as we covered in DICT's 2026 telco spending forecast — so the real pressure is regulatory and reputational rather than financial. The next milestone to watch is the release of the September revalidation results, which will decide which provinces get show-cause orders first.
