Philippine Internet speed
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by Irineo B. R. Salazar
Introduction, Present Issues
The Philippines ranks 16th worldwide in terms of number of Internet users, with nearly 40 million out of a population of nearly 100 million. Many Filipinos use social media heavily. However, the Internet in the Philippines is in bad shape, being very expensive and slow. The are 9 main providers, PLDT and Globe Telecom being the largest. Complaints about the service quality and internet speed are numerous when it comes to the PLDT and Globe which are the only choice for many not in Metro Manila or nearby. . . . (click link to continue reading . . .)
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
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Fiber optic cabling is assumed; wifi and microwave have been discussed; inter-island submarine cables noted. What has not been expanded upon is high throughput satellite technology. This medium is ideal for rural and remote areas of which the Philippines has plenty.
Should satellite broadband be the fourth leg of our Internet strategy? What is the capacity of one satellite? How many satellites would be needed for complete coverage of the archipelago?
Australia just launched one satellite, Sky Muster, this morning, expected to deliver speeds of 25Mbps. A second satellite is slated next year.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-01/vnfnw0mqh9u6yosvwk9m3terrcvhsgv5oehj5fzuoe42ccxzob4wggkdc35ibu/6818106
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sattelite internet? our seamen brothers don’t even use it heavily because of cost and yet they can even afford it and the ship owners have even a budget for it
TY Irineo!
Welcome, Karl… thanks for nudging me to write this for the Society as well.
Joe, many thanks for this double feature – I will suggest the same approach to Raissa. It is important that concerned citizens get an understanding of what this is all about in a quick manner. And reading Mary’s recent postings makes me see that it is not just a problem of the provinces.
Edgar, satellites of course are perfect but expensive, you don’t have to launch them yourself of course but you pay for it. Tethered balloons with transponder and receiver are an alternative.
Are these ideas of drones, satellites, balloons along the lines of Zuckerberg’s or Google’s internet service concepts? What is the current status of these companies’ projects? Viability or disadvantage to our poor not now connected? One immediate disadvantage I can see is that websites available through Zuckerberg’s or Google’s internet service may be limited to one’s that may enhance the company’s profit, a reasonable thought considering they are putting up the infrastructure. Of course, one may say — beggars cannot be choosers.
At the local level, I am amused by the Romanian neighborhood networks which managed to become faster than American Internet – using methods similar to the way their gypsies get electricity just more legit, but with cables on masts in the air and everything.
The same kind of ingenuity and talent for improvisation exists in the Philippines, why not tap it instead of always relying on the big guys. Give me two weeks and Binay’s cake eaters all have DSL fiber optics, kahit nakasabit lang kung saan-saan ang wiring.
Now we are talking. Irineo, you can be the metaphorical AlDub of internet service — so the Filipinos not unknown for their creativity, once fired with an idea can act on it. Especially if their is a profit incentive associated with it? Perhaps DOTC(?) can lend a hand or at least an ear? But there will be a blocking force — Globe and PLDT?
Such a thing could be handled similar to the way jeepneys and tricycles manage their businesses – there are those who handle the capital outlay of buying stuff and individual enterpreneurs working on a “boundary” type system.
Kapitalistang bibili ng mga equipment at wiring, tapos iyong magtatayo ng neighborhood network nakakabit lahat sa isang mini-exchange, sila na ang mag-cha-charge sa kanilang mga end customers. “Boundary” lang ang sisingilin ng kapitalista sa kanila, siya na rin ang gagawa ng koneksiyon sa Internet Exchange at bibili ng koneksiyon sa mga main network. Just a few groups like that in cities and you have the connected in no time. Islands could be connected by simple tethered balloons with antennas, line of sight to other islands.
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From the news:
Weighing nearly 6400 kilograms and as big as an African elephant, Sky Muster is one of the world’s largest communications satellites.
The satellite is worth around $500 million and NBN’s satellite program is set to cost $2 billion in total, including the base stations. This is to service just three per cent of NBN users, making satellite far more expensive than the other parts of the NBN rollout: fiber, fixed wireless and cable.
Note: The satellite leg is expensive because it will service just 3% of NBN users. In the Philippines, the satellite customer base will be larger, servicing outlying islands.
At today’s exhange rate of P33 to A$1, A$2 billion is equivalent to P60B. The 2015 budget for Transport and Communication is P69B.
Still a fiber optic and submarine cable approach might still cost less… considering that multiple satellites might be required.
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Sorry, that’s P66B.
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Thanks, Ireneo. Great article, I know more know about the Internet.
If satellites are still too expensive ( and vulnerable from Chinese sabotage ), I hope a local industry, much like your Romanian story, sprouts to satiate this demand. But how likely is that? Aren’t the two main telcos essentially monopolies?
Now this is the way to discuss things, the Society of Honor way! Detailed, straightforward and credible. Now if we can only get that Senadora to be more detailed in her 20 point program like this…
Why is the Senate NOT investigating PLDT and Globe? Why is PCIJ and Philippine Media not doing also?
ANSWER: Because PLDT and Globe are run by the Mestizo Class, the carrier of Colonial Mentality. They are thought of as the only HONEST race in the Philippines. If they look Chinese to anyone because they are dummies. The real owner are the stockholders. Check the stockholder list and you will see the Mestizo ex-colonizer and current colonizer.
TRILLANES and CAYETANO incluidng PCIJ and Philippine Media are afraid of the only HONEST race in the Philippines. The REAL nog-nog browned-skin Filipinos are the posterboys of corruption. TRILLANES nad CAYETANO see to it that nog-nog browned-skin Filipino commoners will never and can never stand on their feet.
That is why Filipinos and I have given up hope.
When Marcos declared Martial Law, Marcos saw to it that everybody got the message:
He round up that Chinese drug dealer. Shotted him before firing squad on live TV. From then on no more Drugs just like Lee Kuan Yew.
So, Trillanes and Cayetano and PCIJ and Philippine Media …. SHOW US LIKE YOU MEAN IT. Take the horn from the bull.
Who was it who said “TIME IS MONEY”.
If they steal TIME from you, they are stealing your MONEY !!!
Internet Speed is Time. Time is Money.
Therefore, Money is stolen thru slow Internet speed.
Instead, Trillanes&Cayetano et al focused their slow brain on Parking that they cannot tie the money to Binay. VERY SLOW INDEED. I am not saying we have to give Binay out-of-jail card. What I am saying, Trillanes&Cayetano should also investigate the money stolen from internet speed.
Philippines is now in Guiness Book of Record. Metro Manila has the worst traffic on earth !!! Another money stolened and nobody knows about it. What Filipinos lack in money they have more time to sit it out in their drive home.
Tell Zuckerberg to send one of them drones to the Philippines.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/31/facebook-finishes-aquila-solar-powered-internet-drone-with-span-of-a-boeing-737
Thanks Karl. A good read on Zuckerberg’s drone internet project. The Link contains interesting technical details.
Again I think here Filipino ingenuity can build own stuff. The skills they have in Pampanga for building huge saranggola applied to a drone-type adaptation, solar-powered with microchip guidance systems and small propellers, tethering that includes fiber optics.
The electronics for that can be bought, the rest assembled. Anything that promotes the development of local industries should be favored over buying stuff that costs dollars. DOST could promote this, after all they have built the AGT monorail and the road train.
Agreed, do it locally, here’s a good talk by Pippa Malmgren: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFx5kq0pB0Y&t=19m40s
Yes,
We can do a lot of stuff here.
PLDT seems to have some cash to spare: http://tech.eu/brief/pldt-invests-in-rocket-internet/
Rocket Internet may sound hopeful at first, but it is not – read the article for more.
At least not hopeful for the end consumer…
333 million Euros they are investing is 17 billion pesos.
That is nearly 1/4 of the annual Philippine defence budget.
MVP and Tony Salim plus the Samwer brothers are a perfect fit…
http://business.inquirer.net/185431/pldt-takes-33-stake-in-venture-with-rocket-internet
https://www.techinasia.com/rocket-internet-pldt-philippines-internet-joint-venture/
http://manilastandardtoday.com/2015/05/17/pldt-buying-more-internet-companies/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Philippine_Long_Distance_Telephone_Company – interesting:
Philippine Star: 51% – Inquirer: 18% – Business World: 70%
Probably won’t find much critical commentary of PLDT in the newspapers, eh? Just the positive stuff.
http://www.pldt.com/news-center/article/2015/09/30/pldt-launches-pldt-capital-to-create-an-innovation-gateway-between-los-angeles-silicon-valley-and-southeast-asia#.Vg6sPCtOgfY
http://newsbytes.ph/2015/09/30/pinoy-software-guru-to-co-lead-pldts-new-venture-capital-arm/
http://www.vitro.com.ph/press/pldt-alpha-enterprise-enhances-service-lineup-with-vitro-data-center/
All this fancy investing and buying and wheeling and dealing. How come they can’t provide good customer service? One would think that would come FIRST in order to protect the investments. Strange sense of priorities by the Board of Directors . . . but maybe that’s just me . . .
It’s because there are:
a) no vocal consumer-protection groups in the Philippines
b) no papers that make it a job to report on customer service (in Germany there is Test bei Stiftung Warentest which ruthlessly gives grade to all kinds of companies – electronics stores, mobile phone providers, internet providers etc. – neutrally and professionally)
c) probably not enough customer protection laws (EU customer protection laws for example make it an offense, punishable by fines, to promise what cannot be delivered)
d) probably the courts are too cumbersome to deal with class action suits / complaints
e) regulators are most probably too weak (in Germany the Deutsche Telekom is forced to provide certain resources that only they as the former state telecom firm have for a fee that is set by state regulators – they have other tactics like delaying service but it helps)
PLDT is clearly trying to use its stranglehold to make a lot of money, choking Globe and both choking the other small providers – the lack of mandatory peering reminds me of the MRT/LRT interchange at North EDSA, done absurdly for the benefit of mall owners.
The monthly rates mentioned in one of the articles I linked are absurd: 40€/month is almost twice what I pay for my fast connection, 400€/month for the equivalent of what I have is absurd, you can connect a company with 30 people over here for that money. Small wonder that PLDT is rich enough to buy a 10% share in a German startup incubator, although it seems the Samwer brothers asked for more and did not get it from MVP and Salim, but in this case the five (in all) deserve each other. Honor among hustlers.
Yeah, the “State of the Internet Nation” in private hands, where oligopolists seek to become monopolists. And regulatory agencies are in the pocket. And the senators are running for re-election, or a new position, in three years . . .
What forced the big telecoms players in Germany to provide better service starting late 1990s, I think, was the municipal utilities firms in big cities used their own capabilities to create competing services. These firms have the shafts for cable, electricity and water..
If my 20Mbps were not already enough for me, I would switch to M-Net which is owned by Stadtwerke München and a number of other municipal utilities firms in Bavaria. They laid down fiberglass on every sidewalk in the area within the Mittlerer Ring (the second circumferential road here) and provide 100Mbps but it is more expensive of course and I don’t need it as of now. Whew I am back to normal speed now that the Oktoberfest guests are probably lying in their beds, but it was awful for what I am used to during the day.
Of course the municipal firms had the advantage that there were more possibilities to connect to backbones over here, and that Deutsche Bahn (German railways) also sold its own overland networking capacities to make money, providing an alternative to Telekom.
Of course here in Germany there is a major pressure group – large German corporations, and they are scattered all over the country. What’s good for them is good for Germany and they would most certainly not have accepted being left out in a key technology.
Even now I read reports that companies threaten to leave town because of “slow” Internet – by the standards they have here. Towns directly levy the Gewerbesteuer – business tax – which is about 40% of total taxes paid, I know I pay it too. So they see to it that stuff works.
The town of Waldorf (which is were the original Astor came from, anyone from that town who is an Astor and can prove he/she is born there gets a free night at the Waldorf-Astoria to this day) where SAP is based built new roads going to SAP from the Autobahn,
I guess partly from that tax, partly SAP financed it from what I heard because traffic to and from the HQ every morning and evening was awful. Which goes to show that one can also be a good corporate citizen. And billionare Dietmar Hopp, one of the four IBM programmers who left and founded SAP in the 70s because their manager told them nobody needed their crazy idea, is a good citizen as well with a lot of Bill Gates-type projects. And he made his childhood football team a national player with his money…
Wonder if MVP, Henry Sy and others have charitable works at least – Ayala I think has. Dietmar Hopp from what I have heard has remained normal, and can walk down the streets of his hometown near Walldorf – and near Boris Becker’s hometown – safely.
https://www.test.de/unternehmen/about-us/
Seems similar to Consumer Union in the US, where products are evaluated relentlessly. New car safety standards are much higher these days because of CU work. Interestingly, the Philippines just passed a “Lemon Law”, so there are some initiatives here, if not so well organized. I’d peg Bam Aquino as the most consumer-friendly senator.
Which is faster Philippine Internet or Traffic at EDSA?
How do you convert pesos to kilos?
Simple: convert pesos into pounds then pounds to kilos.
Aha! ha! ha! ha! Didn’t see that coming !!!
🙂 That’s kinda like the way we’d count cows on the range. Tabulate the number of legs and divide by four.
It’s neck and neck. The only race in the world where the predominant speed among both contestants is “not moving”.