Senate panel told: Competition not enough to ensure reliable Internet in PHL

Lack of competition and government telecommunication infrastructures are among the reasons the Internet cost is slower yet more expensive in the Philippines compared to its neighbors in Asia Pacific, an expert told a Senate inquiry on Tuesday.

During a Senate hearing Tuesday, Mary Grace Santos, an independent telecom/ICT policy researcher connected with LIRNEasia, said the Philippine government does not have enough investment in telecommunications and rely on private companies for the services.

“In terms of having a national backbone that is carrier neutral, we don’t have that. We are relying on private operators. More importantly, we don’t have competition. We need government to step up in terms of providing a carrier-neutral backbone and also encouraging more competition in the market,” she said.

Santos said LIRNasia is a regional information and communications technology policy think tank that have been conducting qualify of service testing since 2010.

She said the group tested the basic data plans of the three major Internet service providers in the country and they saw a deteriorating trend in  actual versus advertised speed from 2011 to 2014.

“The actual speed never reached the advertised speed, not even once in all the tests we have conducted since 2011,” Santos said.

She added the highest average actual speed that was attained by an ISP was only 26.5 percent of the advertised speed.

“That means it is always 80 percent lower that the advertised speed. The speed performance declined for all ISPs tested year on year,” Santos said.

She said that in terms of value for money, they saw that Filipino internet users are paying more for less every year and the lowest value for money was in 2014.

“Compared to our ASEAN neighbors, we actually offered the lowest value for money when we tested all these other ISPs during the first quarter of 2014,” Santos said.

“That’s a position we don’t want to be in because that means Filipino Internet subscribers pay more for less,” she added.

Santos said there was some improvement in 2013 but only to deteriorate again in 2014.

Santos further said the connection speed of the Philippines for the first quarter of 2015 was the second slowest in Asia Pacific.

“This does not include other low-income countries. I’m comparing the Philippines with countries it is supposed to be at par with in terms of economic standing,” she said.

Santos said that in terms of average peak connection speeds, the Philippines is only at 20.3 Mbps while Singapore is leading with 98.5, Hong Kong with 92.6, and South Korea at 79 Mbps.

“Philippine Internet cost is very expensive. In Hong Kong you can buy the same bandwidth for $5, in Australia it is $6, but once you reach Manila it ranges from $25 to $45 per Mbps and in Cebu it is much higher in $70 per Mbps,” she said. -NB, GMA News