My personal take on why the Philippines is one of the worst when it comes to Internet Service Provision. In the US (Data only gathered from Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner, and Verizon - the Top 4): In terms of affordability: Only Verizon still offers a speed of 1mbps and it only costs around Php800 or $19.99 to be exact. The slowest with the others is usually 3mbps and it only costs an average of P1500 or $35. The fastest that they offer, and this is still residential and not business, is around 105mbps and it only costs barely P5000 or around $115. This is not to mention that apart from the usual services its bundled with (if not stand-alone/naked) like landline, HD cable TV, they also offer free Internet Security software, the subscriber own simple website, and even their own personal/business email addresses too. Whereas, in the Philippines (Figures gathered from PLDT Home and MyDSL, Globe Tattoo, Bayantel, and Sky Broadband - the Top 4 counterpart): PLDT Home still offers .512kbps and even a handful like Bayantel still offer Dial-up (geez) priced at around P500 or around $12. Nonetheless, majority have 1mbps as their minimum offering pushed for P1000 or $23-$24. Verizon offers it for only around P800 while we offer it for around P200 more. On the other hand, as with the fastest, Globe Tattoo boasts of up to 150mbps yet offers it for a whopping P24,999 (just a buck short of P30 grand) when Comcast, albeit 45mbps slower, just sells it for barely P5000. PLDT MyDSL brags about its 100mbps maximum and yet deprives residential customers of enjoying it with its P20,000/mo price tag. Verizon has pretty much around the same speed with 75mbps but the cost is only a little over P3000. Thats around 670% more expensive! Lastly, Sky Broadband rivals with 55mbps as its best package and yet sells it at P9499 or barely $220. Time Warner has 50mbps and it only advertised for $75 or almost only P3250. In terms of speed: In other countries, particularly the States and Australia, most customers already get irritated (and even to the point of crying) when their internet speed slumps to 5 down to 1 mbps and yet here in the country, most of us beg at the mercy of the providers to be approved for such features or for them to be available in their area of residence. Moreover, when people finally have these kinds of connections, they experience intermittent connection (dropouts as others call it) to worse, no connection at all for days! In terms of the New Applications: Im not sure with applications in the States but working with/for an Australian ISP as their Filipino training provider and operations consultant, I had my first-hand experience of how interested subscribers apply for an internet service. Here in the Philippines, CSRs do not have the capability nor the tool to find out right then and there if the area/location the customer would like his/her internet to be serviced at can be provided internet service or not. They would have to dispatch somebody to survey the area to check whether the place is serviceable or not. On the contrary, Australian counterparts, thru their phone agents, have the tool or system to check if the location already has an exchange facility (more often than not, they do which is cool) and they can even measure how far the residence is from the nearest exchange to give the customer an estimate of how much speed he/she can take advantage of. This, therefore, gives the customer a shorter timeline within which to decide whether he will pursue or not not to mention the entire TAT (Turnaround Time) is much shorter as compared to the length of process here in the Philippines. Honestly, internet should be made more available (genuine nationwidest coverage) and more affordable to everyone here. While their internet services lag behind international standards, the owners and the top officials of these no-regard-for-quality-product-and-customer-service companies live in the biggest houses you could imagine and has the most expensive cars out there. Just venting out today. SMH
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 04:39:45 +0000
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