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What PH telecom consumers actually get

Originally appeared in my blog for Telecom Asia on March 15, 2017.

Last week, the Philippines had its first Telecommunications Summit organized by the newly created Department of Information and Communications Technology.

I was given the great opportunity and daunting task of presenting the top consumer issues on telecoms. As expected, the discussion revolved around internet service, particularly access, quality, and cost.

Although I’m very passionate about consumer woes—and it’s very easy to get carried away—I showed the results of studies and analyses by third (mostly disinterested) parties, as researchers are wont to do.

I gathered statistics from Akamai Technologies, OpenSignal, The Economist Intelligence Unit, ITU’s Broadband Commission, and Measuring the Information Society reports. For validation, I threw in some of my own research done for LIRNEasia and a latest collaboration using Big Data analytics.

What was common in these studies was that the country’s internet service is improving, but continues to be one of the slowest and most expensive in the region.

The Philippines had 3.4 per 100 people subscribed to fixed broadband and 41.6 subscribed to mobile broadband in 2015. What do Filipino consumers get in terms of quality and cost of broadband services?

What do these subscribers actually get?

Akamai’s State of the Internet (SOTI) report has consistently placed the Philippines as having the second slowest fixed broadband average connection speed in the Asia Pacific region over the past several quarters, better only than India. In Q4 2016, however, India was seen zooming past the country, with average connection speed now at 5.6Mbps, compared to the Philippines’ 4.5Mbps.

In my own research collaboration with Wilson Chua, a Filipino Big Data analyst based in Singapore, and Chris Ritzo of Measurement Lab (M-Lab), based in Washington, D.C., we saw an improvement in fixed broadband download speeds for the Philippines after 2015. Further probing revealed that peered networks and public institutions connected through the government’s fiber optic network contributed to the Philippines’ increased bandwidth. Interesting to see how much more can be improved in the coming years given the government’s national broadband program.

ITU’s Measuring the Information Society report revealed that entry-level fixed broadband in the country costs 7.5% of a household’s average monthly income in 2015, roughly 2.5% higher than the recommended affordability threshold. A positive development is that the cost of fixed broadband has been going down.

OpenSignal’s latest report on global state of mobile networks, the Philippines’s 3G/4G connection was recorded as the second slowest among the 87 countries surveyed.

Akamai’s SOTI report has data on the Philippines’ average mobile broadband connection speed. For Q4 2016, average speed was at 13.5Mbps, the highest among the Asia Pacific countries! However, the report notes that the Philippines did not meet the minimum requirement of 25,000 unique IPv4 addresses seen by Akamai and identified as coming from a mobile network. Thus, the Philippines did not actually qualify for the analysis and data was included only for reference.

In terms of affordability, a postpaid 1GB mobile broadband plan in the Philippines is still a little expensive at 6.7% of average income. However, a lower-tier prepaid 500MB mobile broadband plan is considered affordable at 1.5% of a household’s income.

The Economist Intelligence Unit offers a more nuanced analysis of affordability in it’s the Inclusive Internet report. The Philippines is ranked in the lower half of the Asian countries included in the index and 43rd out of 75 countries overall. It’s affordability rank, the report notes, is “particularly low”, at 20th out of 22 countries in Asia.

The Philippines also got the second lowest score for the sub-index of competitive environment. The report, commissioned by internet.org by Facebook, measures the competitive environment based on “the concentration of the marketplace for internet service provision.”

Given these rankings and analyses, I’m happy to note that the government’s national broadband plan is putting a priority on policy and regulatory reforms that intend to address competition and infrastructure access issues.

The telecoms summit ended on a positive note as various stakeholders signed agreements to collaborate on finding solutions. Hopefully, though, the way forward will not focus on band-aid solutions, but on changes that would truly address consumer problems stemming mainly from the lack of choice.

#PHInternet PHBroadband Consumers

June 27, 2014: At a forum on the "Impact and Benefits of Internet Exchanges" jointly organized by DOST-ICTO and Internet Society - PH Chapter, I presented the results of the Philippines broadband quality of service experience (QoSE) study carried out under LIRNEasia. View the video of the entire workshop and download the presentations here, and see my presentation on how the Philippines fares in broadband QoSE here.

Photos courtesy of DOST-ASTI (Kath Rivera) and ISOC-PH (Benjz Gerard Sevilla).

#philippines #broadband #internet exchange #quality of service experience #lirneasia

20 years of Philippine internet

April 07, 2014

I was 20 years old when I first got exposed to the internet. Having come from a family that did not own a computer, I barely knew how or why to go “online.” Right after graduating in 1998, I became a research assistant for a university professor who introduced me to emails.

Being the non-techie that I was, you can only imagine my astonishment when I found out that a computer can “connect” with other computers worldwide. Since then, the internet has pretty much become a part of my research profession.

Today, the internet is a part of everything. The United Nations declared that access to it is a human right. The World Bank has been touting the economic impact of broadband connectivity. And the developed world is abuzz with wonderment about the so-called Internet of Things.

Who knew that the internet would become this big?

Back in 1993, connecting the Philippines to the Internet began as a small “project” proposed by Dr. William “Bill” Torres, former director-general of the National Computer Center, who “discovered” that the internet can be brought into the country as acommercial product.

The government, through the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) under the project administration of Dr. Rodolfo “Rudy “ Villarica, gave an initial grant funding of ten million pesos. This amount was used to buy equipment and pay for the leased line connecting to the United States, with a capacity of 64 kbps costing about $10,000 per month back then.

Both Dr. Torres and Dr. Villarica are now known as the fathers of the Philippine internet.

On March 29, 1994, Philnet (later on, PHNet), which consisted of a bunch of engineers from various universities, connected the Philippines to the internet. And the rest is history.

Twenty years hence, cost has significantly gone down and internet in the country has expanded to government offices, businesses, households, and individual citizens. The Philippines has adapted well to this technology so much so that it has recorded the biggest internet population growth globally over the past five years.

Internet connectivity has spurred a wide new range of businesses, and especially so for the telecommunication sector that had just been liberalized in the mid-1990s. According to the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC), there were 360 registered ISPs nationwide in 2012, up from 93 a decade earlier. Network equipment and value-added services today have a huge demand. A lot of businesses have also ventured, and are thriving, online.

Barely 10 years after the internet was introduced, business process outsourcing (BPO) services emerged. Today, the Philippines is a top location for BPOs whose export revenues hit $13.34 billion in 2013.

Filipinos have discovered in the internet another medium for communication and self-expression. Over the past years, we have been ranked as among the heaviest users of Facebook, photo-sharing, and online videos. This is no surprise because the country is, after all, the texting capital of the world.

But after 20 years, an ecosystem of problems continues to stifle the development of internet in the country.

Read the full entry here. Visit Telecom Asia for news and analysis for Asia’s telecoms operators.

When communication fails during a disaster

November 20, 2013

On November 8, the Philippines was hit by Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), one of the strongest typhoons to make landfall ever recorded in the world’s history. A vast expanse of the provinces on the Eastern part of the country has been devastated, some towns left in ruins and almost wiped out.

In the aftermath of the super typhoon which packed maximum sustained winds of 315 kph (by comparison, Hurrican Katrina’s was 280 kph) and brought a deadly storm surge, the affected areas lost telecommunication services vital to disaster response. This made everything much worse.

Despite having top national government officials pre-positioned in Tacloban City, one of the hardest hit, information on the extent of the damage and the amount of help needed came in trickles. In fact, assessment of the situation became more difficult twice over, especially since airports and ports were also wrecked.

People outside the typhoon’s path relied on intermittent TV newsfeeds by media people on the ground, who were themselves stranded and unable to use phone services.

For several days, survivors could not contact their government for help or get their message across to loved ones in other areas to inform them that they were alive and needed help.

The local governments in the province of Leyte struggled to function, because they themselves were victims. In Tacloban City, the number of police officers, fire fighters, and health workers was significantly diminished. It became almost impossible to mobilize personnel and resources from within.

In a country where mobile phones are ubiquitous and the need for texting has become part of the Filipino psyche, one could only imagine how to it was like for the government, the survivors, and relief operators to be cut off when communicating was needed the most.

In several provinces in Central Philippines, especially the Visayas, communication was either completely lost or poor. Smart Communications, Sun Cellular, and Globe Telecom’s 2G and 3G networks went down due to power outages and damaged cell sites. The whole region became practically isolated.

Read the full entry here. Visit Telecom Asia for news and analysis for Asia’s telecoms operators.

Philippines' telecom laws need a revamp

Grace Mirandilla-Santos | July 16, 2013

Unlike in other countries where telecommunication was developed and operated primarily by the state, in the Philippines it’s the private sector that is leading and reaping the rewards of this lucrative sector.

Not that the government would do or know better, if it had its way. But since the liberalization era in the early 1990s and the e-Commerce law in 2000, legislation and policymaking targeted at helping the sector has pretty much stagnated.

Take convergence, for example. A bill on converging telecommunications-related technologies, which allows telcos and ISPs to offer multimedia services, has been languishing in Congress for more than a decade.

Doubts of a convergence law ever happening are founded on the difficult question of its constitutionality. A Globe Telecom official once said that the Philippine Constitution, particularly the provision on 100% Filipino ownership of mass media, would need to be amended first.

But today, it seems that all the debates are moot and academic. The private telcos are already steering the way toward convergence sans a law, and with little or no involvement from the government.

Read the full entry here. Visit Telecom Asia for news and analysis for Asia’s telecoms operators.

Good new (re)start for PH eGov development

Grace Mirandilla-Santos | July 05, 2013

The Philippines celebrated “National ICT month” last June. But unlike in previous years, the government unveiled quite a number of ICT programs and services this time around.

The ICT Office (ICTO) under the Department of Science and Technology, which now handles the functions of the defunct Commission on ICT, first launched its flagshipIntegrated Government Philippines (iGovPhil) Project in June 2012.

ICTO’s executive director Louis C. Casambre said the project would integrate and provide “essential core services, and the necessary protocols and standards to make feasible secure yet open and efficient interoperability among all government ICT systems.” iGovPhil was also designed to solve the problems of poor synergies and cross-project collaborations, which the 8 billion peso ($186 million) eGovernment Fund for 2003-2011 failed to meet.

Last month, ICTO introduced supporting ICT apps and services, such as the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), a government-wide email system (GovMail), the government cloud (GovCloud), Agency Records Inventory System (AgRIS), and the government website template.

The skeptic would simply dismiss these as a rehash of the same old ICT programs that would forever remain on the drawing board. But these initiatives and the progress thus far are actually impressive by PH government standard.

Read the full entry here. Visit Telecom Asia for news and analysis for Asia’s telecoms operators.

Are social media helping improve telcos' CRM?

Grace Mirandilla-Santos | April 25, 2013

Unless you live under a rock or in North Korea, you should know that social is the way to go.

Social media - blogging, online social networking, and micro-blogging - have become so pervasive that it is almost unthinkable for a business entity - at least those who want to remain relevant - not to use them.

In telecom, social media have transformed not only business models but the very concept of customer service. Never before have consumers been given the power and ability to inquire, give feedback, complain, demand, or throw a fit with the whole of cyberspace as audience.

But are telcos using Facebook and Twitter in a way that improves customer experience? Or are they using social media only because they have to? My Facebook newsfeed and Twitter timeline are a rich source of anecdotes telling me that it’s more the latter than the former.

I have read a variety of posts ranging from simple complaints (“My internet is slow today.”), to clarificatory (“Is there a way to fix this?”), to violent (“Magsara na lang kayo!”). That last quote in Filipino roughly translates to “just close shop!”, which doesn’t quite capture how an irate, desperate customer truly feels once all civility and options have been exhausted.

Read the full entry here. Visit Telecom Asia for news and analysis for Asia’s telecoms operators.

Is PH telecom moving fast enough?

Grace Mirandilla-Santos | March 18, 2013

“Arangkada” is a Filipino word which roughly translates to “move fast” or “accelerate.” The Joint Foreign Chamber (JFC) in the Philippines chose this term to call its advocacy paper of recommendations that could potentially lead to job creation, foreign investment, and revenue. To achieve these outcomes, the JFC posits that the country must focus on fast tracking reforms in what it labels as the “Seven Big Winner Sectors”, one of them being telecommunications.

It was a privilege to be invited as one of the assessment experts on telecom. Given a list of key reform areas, the exercise gave me the opportunity to step back, reflect on the past year, and look at the telecom and ICT sector from a broad perspective. The scoring method was simple and based on whether there was any movement in key recommendations or none. Experts had to substantiate their scores by citing references and examples. In short, the scores had to be based on fact, not impression.

Of the JFC’s 11 recommendations, three things stood out for me as areas where the government can and should initiate the reform.

Read the full entry here. Visit Telecom Asia for news and analysis for Asia’s telecoms operators.

Philippines anti-cybercrime law 2.0

Grace Mirandilla-Santos | January 15, 2013

Transparent, participatory, and consultative -- big words often used to describe democratic processes. Yet, they are almost always wanting or non-existent in real life. But in the Philippines, often cited for its unpredictable and unruly political system, a Senate bill was conceptualized and drafted based on those very principles.

The proposed legislation called “The Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom” (MCPIF) was filed by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago -- a veteran court judge and international law expert known for her ferocity in fighting to uphold the letter of the law. Santiago's bill can be said to be a better and more informed version of Republic Act (RA) 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act. The latter was signed into law in October 2012 by the same president who abolished the country’s Commission on ICT a couple of years back.

Read the full entry here. Visit Telecom Asia for news and analysis for Asia’s telecoms operators.

Buyouts and the battle for spectrum in PH

Grace Mirandilla-Santos | November 23, 2012

In this wireless world, Globe Telecom is taking a great leap of faith with its recent announcement that it plans to invest in fixed line provider, Bayan Telecommunications Inc.’s (Bayan). The Ayala-led telco is seeking to buy almost 100 percent of Bayan’s outstanding debts worth $200 million for $184 million in cash. If the deal is consummated, Globe would become one of Bayan’s major creditors. Whether this takeover will happen or not, the country should know before December 18, the deadline for the offer.

In separate talks, Globe is also negotiating to purchase an equity stake in the same telco. Some analysts say this move is definitely an indication that Globe, the second largest telco in the Philippines, is feeling the heat of intense competition in the mobile market.

So, why invest in the struggling Lopez-owned telco? Apart from Bayan’s 200,000 or so landlines, it has 140,000 broadband subscribers and unused frequency. Ah, the magic word: frequency. It is such a precious, finite resource that is causing a lot of madness in the telecoms world, especially in this broadband and smartphone era.

Read the full entry here. Visit Telecom Asia for news and analysis for Asia’s telecoms operators.

Cybercrime law in an SMS, Facebook nation

Grace Mirandilla-Santos | October 15, 2012

As Filipinos remembered the declaration of martial law 40 years ago last month—and the curtailment of many freedoms that it entailed—the incumbent president signed into law the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

If the barrage of opposition and flurry of protests online and offline were to be used as gauge, Republic Act 10175 is easily one of the most unpopular laws to be enacted in quite a while.

Barely a month had gone by after its passage, and 15 petitions have already been filed before the Supreme Court asking to either repeal it or amend certain provisions deemed by its critics as unconstitutional.

Read the full entry here. Visit Telecom Asia for news and analysis for Asia’s telecoms operators.

digitaldelacruz

As PHCERT President that time, I got appointed to be the Public Sector Co-chairman of the Privacy and Security Subcommittee of the IT ECommerce Council during President Erap’s time. It is in this committee that we started work on the two IT Landmark bills we know today as RA10173 (Data Privacy...

gracemirandilla-blog

This is one gem of an archived email message! This is the original proposed draft of Philippine Computer Emergency Response Team (PH-CERT) for a Cybercrime Prevention Act in the Philippines from 2003, sans the questionable provisions on online libel, cybersex, and the takedown power of the Department of Justice.

Also read their official statement on the current version of the recently approved law and as featured here: Cybercrime Law creators lament too much 'insertions'.

Smart vs. Globe: It's about standards, silly

NTC should go further with QoS benchmarks.

Grace Mirandilla-Santos | September 26, 2012

Last week, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) released the results of its Quality of Service (QoS) benchmarking tests for the second quarter of this year.

The purpose of the testing was to measure the telcos’ cellular network performance based on “existing NTC prescribed minimum service performance standards.” More importantly, though, this yardstick can be used to inform and guarantee consumers that the telcos are providing services at a certain level of quality.

In fact, QoS tests can be used as the basis for Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between the telcos and their customers.

The results, announced through a press release, revealed that Smart prepaid performed better in four out of the five metrics (dropped call rate, average receive signal level, average signal quality, and call set-up time). Globe prepaid had an edge in one metric (blocked call or grade of service).

... Amid the furor over which telco is better, the limelight is deflected from the tester, the NTC. Truth be told, it is rare for the telecom regulator to be causing this much public stir. It is rare for the public to be paying any attention to it, at all. And this gem of an opportunity the NTC should grab and, hopefully, use to advance better telco service and consumer education.

Read the full entry here. Visit Telecom Asia for news and analysis for Asia’s telecoms operators.

ITU & Google partner in Public Data Explorer

Global ICT data from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is now available through the Google Public Data Explorer (PDE). The platform not only gives quick access to the latest statistics on ICT, but also helps interpret and present them in a friendly format. Best of all, it's free!

Below, I've extracted and compared three sets of stats among select Asian countries. Took me a few minutes. Neat! :D

The New Media, Society, & Politics in the Philippines

Check out this latest FES publication by Dr. Raul Pertierra (2012), where my research work on cybercampaigning and political blogging in the Philippines are cited. :)

The New Media, Society, & Politics in the Philippines (2012)

Abstract:

The Philippines is a paradox. The country is one of the most democratic and liberal societies in Asia, with a long history of western institutions and cultural practices. It is the only Christian-Catholic country in Asia and one of the most religious nations on earth. Its women are among the most liberated in the world, occupying senior positions in government, education and business. Its media is legendary for its critical stance and free-wheeling approach. It launched the so-called people power movement in 1986, inspiring other countries in non-violent revolution. It has accepted and domesticated the new media enthusiastically, making it the texting capital of the world and among the highest users of Facebook. The country is also known as the economic basket case of Asia, living on the income of its overseas workers. It is also among the most corrupt in the region. Its political elite rules uninterruptedly, winning elections repeatedly. It is the only country without divorce and contraception is too expensive for its poor. After Iraq, the Philippines is the most dangerous country for journalists.

One may well ask: how did all these things come about? The Philippines is a palimpsest where traditional, modern and postmodern influences manifest themselves contemporaneously. Its politics is traditional, its culture modern and its media postmodern. Understanding the role of new technologies, such as digital media, under these circumstances requires an appreciation of incommensurable factors that are nevertheless intercalated. The surface of Philippine politics appears imperturbable but underneath it, notions of the political are being reformulated as a consequence of the new media and its globalizing influence.

Why Globe needs to do better

Outages further complicate attempts to compete with PLDT.

Grace Mirandilla-Santos | September 6, 2012

September did not start easy for the Philippines' Globe Telecom, as they received a deluge of complaints from subscribers complaining about disrupted services in the southern parts of Metro Manila.

Globe then issued a statement September 3 attributing the problems in the cities of Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Parañaque, Manila, and Pasayto to “a connectivity issue within [its] network systems.”.

While technical glitches in telco networks are bound to happen, Globe has had a few major ones recently. A service disruption that happened in May last year was caused by a “severed undersea fiber cable” serving the Visayas and Mindanao regions.

A second one, which occurred merely three months later, was reportedly due to a surge in calls and texts. The most recent downtime, however, created a big fuss because it happened in the capital.

Three disruptions in a row in less than two years is a bit too much, and too many for comfort for a player competing with the incumbent, PLDT’s Smart Communications.

Read the full entry here. Visit Telecom Asia for news and analysis for Asia’s telecoms operators.

Grace in Mono: Philippine internet, ICT lagging behind

Can it ever catch up to its SEA neighbors?

Grace Mirandilla-Santos | May 15, 2012

In CNN’s recent Eye on the Philippines feature, it was fascinating to see the number of internet users right next to the population infographic. This is proof that access to ICT, especially the internet, is as important a statistic as any development indicator in today’s hyperconnected world.

The Internet World Stats ranked the Philippines no. 7 among Asia’s top internet countries, with 30 million online citizens to boast. But does this figure mean anything? Although 30 million sounds like a lot, it roughly translates to 29% online Filipinos out of 102 million. This is 10% less than the internet penetration rate of a low-income country like Kyrgyzstan (39%)—a paradox considering that the Philippines is a lower-middle income nation and two stages higher than Kyrgyzstan in terms of digitization.

Internet laggard the Philippines is also marred by poor connection quality. In Akamai’s State of the Internet Report for the fourth quarter of 2011, internet in the Philippines was found to be among the slowest in the Asia Pacific region, with an average speed of 1.1 Mbps. This falls below Akamai's definition of broadband – connection speeds of above 2 Mbps.

The report pointed out that “only a privileged few” (7.1%) actually enjoy broadband-speed connectivity, a stark contrast to that of neighbors like Malaysia (22%), Singapore (67%), and Thailand (70%). If Philippine ISPs do not feel the need to catch up with their Asian counterparts, they ought to improve service for their clients.

Filipino consumers feel that internet service in the country leaves much to be desired. And they are willing to shell out more money for better service quality, depending on how they use broadband and for particular circumstances, a recent survey by Ericsson’s ConsumerLab revealed. This begs the question: Aren’t consumers already paying enough for broadband? Or is slow internet caused by poor infrastructure combined with the telcos’ business practice of oversubscription?

In a broader context, this top Facebook user-country (ranked 8th in the world) has sadly remained a straggler in exploiting ICT’s full potential. The latest Networked Readiness Index (NRI) ranked the Philippines at no. 86 (out of 142 countries)—its worst performance in five years, starting from no. 69 (out of 122) in 2006. The NRI’s sub-indices point to some national issues that give a clearer picture of why and how the Philippines has failed to leverage ICT to boost its competitiveness.

Read the full entry here. Visit Telecom Asia for news and analysis for Asia’s telecoms operators.

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