Are telcos really getting better?

During the State of the Nation Address by Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte last June, one of the major things he demanded was for telcos to improve their services as our wi-fi connection is horrible. So the president said that by Christmas time, telcos should improve their services. Well, it is only a hundred days before Christmas.

Well, at least there is some good news that I read that as far as Secretary Gringo Honasan of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is concerned, internet speed in the Philippines “is not that bad.” This was revealed during a budget hearing Tuesday in Congress, Honasan said the average mobile connection speed in the country of three to seven megabits per second (mbps) is not as terrible as the public says when compared with neighboring countries.

Honasan said, “Right now, without going into figures, we are not doing too badly. But this is so hard to explain to the public,” he told members of the House appropriations committee. “Of course compared to other countries, they can reach up to 55 mbps while ours is still between three and seven mbps. But this is not that bad.” For one, Globe Telecom’s Ernest Cu went to Malacañang to personally explain to the president that the problem lies not only with the telcos, but the local government units that take a very long time to approve the construction of cellsites, thus adding to the problem.

But without much ado, Pres. Duterte immediately ordered the LGUs to shape up regarding their requirements for the construction of cellsites. Meanwhile, DICT Assistant Secretary Emmanuel Caintic explained that the country’s internet connection speed, particularly in broadband services, has improved in recent years. He said the country’s fixed broadband speed in 2016 was 7.91 mbps, which jumped to 25.07 mbps this year. For mobile, the average internet speed in the country is currently at 6.95 mbps. He added that “We already improved a lot. But this is no cause for celebration because our neighbors hit 213.18 mbps in fixed broadband and 56.43 mbps in mobile,” Caintic said.

Meanwhile Honasan said, “to modernize and improve the country’s internet quality and the government should launch projects with private firms like telecom companies. He added that the DICT has issued 23 provisional certificates to independent tower companies in a bid to ramp up telco towers infrastructure in the country.

Caintic added the DICT needs a budget of P17 billion to “fire up” the country’s “national digital highway” by setting up fiber optic cables in the 81 provinces in the country. However he lamented that in the agency’s proposed P10.9-billion budget for 2021, only P902 million is allocated for this DICT project. He added, “Our plan is to first light up our national highway which is the fiber optic cable of the national grid. Apart from that, we will also spend on microwave radio towers in far-flung areas not reachable by fiber.”

Years ago I wrote that the telco industry in the Philippines should have a national highway carrying a fiber optic cable that is owned by the government and all telcos in the Philippines merely ride into this highway so everything can run smoothly and internet would be fast and strong. This is what they did in Japan.

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I just read this report that Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. revealed yesterday a “plot” to sell four Philippine properties in Japan.

“There is another plot to dispose of four of our Japan properties. This is a second Pearl Harbor perpetrated by Filipinos on our own patrimony,” Locsin tweeted. While he did not identify who is behind the plot, I think he should! Mind you, this was an issue 30 years ago when some people close to the powers-that-be tried to sell the Roppongi property.

Years ago, the Supreme Court made a decision that the four are “properties and the capital goods and services procured from the Japanese government for national development projects are part of the indemnification to the Filipino people for their losses in life and property and their suffering during World War II.” Locsin rejected using the plight of veterans by those pushing the sale of Philippine properties and raise funds for them.

The Department of Foreign Affairs, according to Locsin, already told Congress about its opposition to the sale. If I recall, the sale of the Roppongi property was vehemently opposed by the late vice president Salvador Laurel.