A different Christmas

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who greeted me on this very special day of mine. So this is how it feels, birthday in the time of COVID-19. What used to be celebrated in restaurants is now made more special knowing that my family and loved ones remain safe.

Five days from now, it will be Christmas day. It will be a silent Christmas for sure, but I was reminded by a priest during one homily that the Lord may have purposedly silenced us to block out all the noise and allow us to concentrate on and listen only to what’s truly important.

The last few days before Christmas used to be chaotic, with Christmas parties being held all over the place. Malls would be filled with people doing their last-minute Christmas shopping, but now, many would rather do their buying online. This is good, especially since even micro businesses with an  online presence find themselves awash with orders. Christmas parties are now being done online. In fact, last Friday, I was able to attend two parties at the same time, which obviously is physically impossible. Added bonus of course is minus the traffic.

I know that everyone has a common wish – that all those pharmaceutical companies out there claiming to have an effective COVID-19 vaccine have really found the answer. It will probably be another year or two before everything returns to normal, but who knows, a miracle can still happen. We just have to keep the faith and believe that everything will be resolved in God’s time.

Phl broadband field gets interesting

The broadband internet field recently got a major boost after the Manila Electric Co. launched Red Broadband, an unlimited fiber broadband and pay TV service, via a partnership between its wholly owned subsidiary Radius Telecom and Cignal TV, a direct to home satellite TV service provider.

According to a statement, Radius Telecoms is the only telecommunications carrier in the country that delivers services on an end-to-end fiber optic platform. Red Broadband is a three-in-one service that provides faster and affordable fiber broadband connectivity, built-in TV plans, and access to Cignal TV’s own streaming app, Cignal Play. Customers  get to choose their base plan and enjoy the freedom to avail of faster broadband speeds, additional TV boxes, or more pay TV channels. Plans start at P1,299 per month.

The new service competes directly with SkyCable which also provides pay TV and home broadband services.

Prior to the launch of Red Broadband, Radius Telecoms offered data, internet and managed cloud services to small and medium-sized businesses. It operates a full fiber optic network covering 5,000 kilometers in Mega Manila, Clark, and Cebu, but is expanding to major cities in Visayas and Mindanao by next year. Meralco owns Radius Telecoms through e-subsidiary e-Meralco Ventures.

The demand for reliable internet service has grown by leaps and bounds due to the pandemic. I used to have online meetings with people who connect to Zoom or other virtual meeting platforms using their mobile phones’ data service, but have now subscribed to broadband internet services for their homes, something they thought they could live without before.

It has been reported that both PLDT and Globe have posted sharp increases in their data and broadband services for the first nine months of 2020, with PLDT’s revenues for data and broadband increasing by 18 percent compared to the same period last year to reach P90.8 billion. Even its revenues from mobile internet and home broadband went up 31 and 14 percent, respectively. Data and broadband now account for 72 percent of PLDT’s total service revenues.

Globe, meanwhile, increased its home broadband revenue by 22 percent, hitting P19.5 billion for the first nine months of the year while its mobile data revenues rose to P53.4 billion from P52.1 billion last year.

Another broadband internet provider, Converge ICT Solutions, reported that its consolidated revenues went up 67 percent to P10.68 billion compared to last year, mainly boosted by its home internet segment which increased by 90 percent.

Just recently, another company has stepped up its game given the ever-growing demand for better internet services.

Publicly listed telecommunications, media, and technology firm NOW Corp., and its affiliate NOW Telecom, announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Finnish technology leader Nokia to introduce 5G network and 5G use cases in the Philippines.

Under the MOU, collaboration between the three parties will focus on the expansion of NOW Telecom’s current broadband telecom network by rolling out a 5G stand alone network in the Philippine market.

According to company officials, the collaboration with Nokia signifies the pivotal point in NOW Group’s strategy in penetrating the growing demand for broadband connectivity and multimedia services in the enterprise, government and residential market segments, and this collaboration on 5G stand alone network and 5G use cases in the Philippine market will spur more growth, especially in these market segments.

They say  NOW will leverage on Nokia’s wealth of expertise in the 5G technology and its game-changing capabilities to bring the true benefits of 5G to consumers while opening the door to new opportunities in industrial and manufacturing use cases.

NOW Group founder and chairman Mel Velarde said the agreement would  bring about the multi-gigabit broadband internet era in Philippine telecom, media, and technology markets.  NOW’s strategy is to expand its current guaranteed service to high-end markets via 5G fixed wireless access and extend customer experience to consumers via 5G mobile cellular broadband service.

Earlier, NOW Telecom revealed that it plans to spend $713 million for its five-year 5G fixed wireless access business plan. The company aims to deploy the 5G FWA network in the National Capital Region and offer a broadband plan of up to 10 gigabit per second service. Of the $713 million, around $152 million will be used in the first three years mostly to acquire new 5G radio equipment.

NOW Telecom is hoping to build on its current stronghold, particularly business enterprises, highly dense residential areas, high-end residential homes, and high-rise buildings. Company officials said that the telecom firm is well-positioned in the enterprise and high-end residential market in the country via 5G FWA and that with fairly limited competition in this space, there is a strong opportunity to gain a profitable market share.

Velarde earlier noted that in all these years, the company has succeeded on the basis of a clear and highly differentiated competitive strategy by focusing on addressable and profitable target customers, and by building a wireless broadband network with cutting-edge technologies.

The more, the merrier, so they say. With the pandemic requiring work-from-home setups, as well as online schooling, customers are surely going to expect more and better services from their internet service providers.

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