{"id":12736,"date":"2014-05-29T14:57:47","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T06:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=12736"},"modified":"2014-05-31T15:18:17","modified_gmt":"2014-05-31T07:18:17","slug":"congestion-oversubscription-causes-slow-internet-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/05\/29\/congestion-oversubscription-causes-slow-internet-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Congestion, oversubscription causes slow internet connection"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"An<\/a>
An exasperated Sen. Loren Legarda questioned telecommunication companies about the slow and expensive internet connections. Photo from Legarda’s official Facebook page<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 In a senate hearing, lawmakers vent out their frustration over the \u2018snail-paced\u2019 internet connection in the country and proposed to set standards for its regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine,\u00a0meron na akong Wifi at 3G, mabagal pa rin. Talaga bang mabagal ang dalawang kompanya? Ano ba \u2018yun?!<\/em> (Imagine, I already have Wifi and 3G, but my Internet connection is still slow. Are the two companies just that<\/em> slow? What is that?!),\u201d Senator Loren Legarda said.<\/p>\n

During the senate hearing, Legarda asked several press officials from the telecommunication companies Globe and Smart to explain why the internet is so expensive yet unreliable.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we speak, there is no Internet in my office,\u201d Legarda said. \u201cInternet is either absent or excruciatingly slow which is so exasperating, frustrating. I don’t like high-tech answers, please. I am not high-tech. Gusto\u00a0ko maintindihan. Ang mahal ng singil, bakit ganoon?<\/em>\u00a0(I want to understand. You charge so much, why is that?),\u201d Legarda asked.<\/p>\n

Smart Communications\u2019 representative responded saying that congestion was really the main reason for the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can have a network with more than adequate capacity but you can have congestion in a specific area. The common example is a concert. Tens of thousands are in one area. All have cellphones; many taking selfies. It\u2019s hard to design a network that can handle that capacity,\u201d said Ramon Isberto, head of the public affairs group of Smart Communications.<\/p>\n

To address the issue, Isberto added that telcos must invest in extending networks through the building of more cell cites which however will \u201centail capital expenditure.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Senator Ralph Recto proposes his own measure to regulate Internet speed.<\/p>\n

Recto filed a bill which requires the companies to set a minimum Internet speed at 10 Megabits per second (Mbps) for mobile broadband\/Internet access, and 20 Mbps for fixed and fixed wireless broadband\/Internet access or those installed at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe transition to a faster internet speed would be two years after the enactment of the law,\u201d Recto said.<\/p>\n

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which regulates telcos, also has its own proposal to make Internet a \u201cbasic service\u201d instead of a \u201cvalue added service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means speed and price are dictated by the market. Maybe we want to make it a basic service to regulate speed and price,\u201d said NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba.<\/p>\n

Senate trade committee chairman Senator Paolo Benigno \u201cBam\u201d Aquino IV, who also was the one who called for the hearing, agreed with the NTC\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n

He added that making the internet a basic service is a must and that it is possible by amending the Public Service Act of 1936.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine, we\u2019re talking about the high-tech information age and we\u2019re still using a 1936 law so it\u2019s about time we update this law and use amendments to push for better access and more affordable Internet in the Philippines,\u201d Aquino said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 In a senate hearing, lawmakers vent out their frustration over the \u2018snail-paced\u2019 internet connection in the country and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":12803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,5],"tags":[4319,4320],"class_list":["post-12736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ph","category-technology","tag-internet-connection","tag-senate-hearing","mauthors-lei-fontamillas","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}