The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Luis Leoncio
(First part)
Globe Telecom has called on the government to make Internet infrastructure among its first priorities to enable businesses to realize their full capabilities amid the strong economic growth and robust digitization of various industries.
“In addition to enhancing and improving access to education, government services, entertainment and social media, a robust Internet infrastructure provides tremendous opportunities for business and greatly impacts economic growth,” Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu said.
“This is something the government can help in by providing the right regulatory environment as we build an Internet infrastructure that would develop ICT capabilities of local industries for stronger economic growth and a wonderful Philippines,” he added.
Cu sought the government’s help to expedite legislation to reduce bureaucratic red tape and other political hurdles that stand in the way of the deployment of telecommunication and broadband infrastructure, such as cell sites.
He specified the Open Access Law for the telecommunications (telco) industry as “necessary” in speeding up the release of permits for all telecommunications facilities at the local government level.
Telecommunication companies are required to secure several permits, Cu said, adding that Globe has about 500 cell sites waiting to be built at any given time.
“Prioritizing the Open Access law for the telco industry would help fast-track fiber builds that will increase Internet access and speeds in the country,” Cu said.
Cu also pushed for the “immediate harmonization and equitable distribution” of the 700 megahertz of frequency to sufficiently provide for the rapidly increasing data traffic amid growing smartphone use in the country.
He said the use of the 700 MHz (megahertz) would help improve Internet speed in the country.
The proposed harmonization is supported by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), which maintains that the utilization of the frequency would help bridge the digital divide worldwide.
The ITU formally moved to allocate the 700 MHz band to the global mobile industry at the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15) in November.
The ITU’s move on the 700 MHz spectrum is supported by the GSMA, which said maximizing on the unused 700 MHz mobile-frequency spectrum could potentially increase the impact of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by tenfold.
The group’s Mobile Economy Asia study also found that the full use of the spectrum has the potential to create an additional 2.1 million jobs for the Asia-Pacific region by 2020.
The London-based GSMA is an association of nearly 800 operators and more than 250 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and Internet companies, as well as organizations in adjacent industry sectors.
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), meanwhile, said it was now finalizing the rules on the measurement of mobile broadband and Internet access services.
NTC Director Edgardo Cabarios said in a public hearing last week that the promulgation of new rules for a Memorandum Circular (MC) on mobile broadband services is a sequel of the MC 07-08-2015, which measures the performance of fixed broadband and Internet services.
Akin to MC 07-08-2015, the new MC allows the NTC to conduct the monitoring and measurement of actual mobile broadband speed offered by telecommunications companies.
This is to ensure that mobile broadband providers are giving adequate services to their subscribers.
The official noted that the NTC is looking at a minimum speed of 256 kilobits per second (kbps) for mobile Internet services—the same prescribed minimum speed for fixed broadband.
Under the MC, networks cannot advertise themselves as broadband service providers if their minimum speed was below 256 kbps.
If a network claims to be a broadband service provider but is monitored with below-minimum-speed performance, the company can be penalized through the Consumer Act under the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) due to false advertisement.
Administrative penalty currently costs P500 to P300,000, but the DTI is eyeing to amend the Consumer Act and increase fines to P50,000 up to P1 million.
Meanwhile, the NTC is currently preparing the terms of reference for the procurement of equipment for testing of broadband and Internet services, Cabarios added.