Julia Theresa Yap has witnessed the growth of Pacific Internet Philippines from a pioneering Internet-service provider (ISP) in 1996 to the largest independent Internet communications service provider in the country today.

As president, Yap describes her stint with Pacific Internet as exhilarating because of the opportunities for growth and the great chemistry with her team. In an interview with BusinessMirror, Yap shares what’s in store for Pacific Internet in its journey further into cyberspace.

Describe the growth of Pacific Internet Philippines since 1996?

Pacific Internet Philippines, or Pacnet PH, was established in 1996 as Primeworld Digital Systems Inc., one of the pioneer ISPs in the country with a direct international link to the Internet in the USA.  Being the only multinational ISP in the country, Pacific Internet capitalized on the experience of its affiliates in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, among others, to deliver world-class Internet communication products and services to its business, government and residential customers. This allowed Pacnet PH to grow rapidly and take the leadership position in the industry.

Today, the company is in the midst of a transformation, with a broader range of products and services for the large enterprise and small and medium enterprise (SME) customers. Aside from offering high-bandwidth Internet access, delivered via traditional leased lines or wireless solutions, Pacific Internet empowers SMEs and large-scale enterprises with IT-enabled solutions, including sentinel-managed security, antivirus and antispam for e-mail, backup and data center disaster recovery services as well as Vocal Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. Sentinel is a comprehensively managed network security solution for protection against viruses, spam, hackers and other data-compromising threats. Vocal is our international carrier-grade VoIP service.

In 2005, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) awarded Pacific Internet Philippines with a provisional license to deploy wireless data infrastructure in the country, enabling the company to provision wireless IP connectivity to its business and professional customers. With control over the customer link, Pacnet PH is now able to hurdle difficulties posed by the telcos and has a provision within a maximum of five days with committed bandwidth and service-level agreements.

In 2006, the NTC also granted Pacific Internet its VoIP service provider license allowing us to offer voice services. Prior to 2006, Pacific Internet was known only as an Internet-access service provider. As a VoIP service provider, Pacific Internet now has the capability to deliver more economical and feature-rich communication services to its customers.

How would Pacific Internet Philippines assess the current market situation for Internet-based products?

As PCs become more and more affordable and as awareness for VoIP spreads throughout the country, the number of Internet users will grow exponentially.  It is projected that there will be 3.3 million Internet subscribers and 31 million Internet users by 2010, and an increasing percentage will use some form of broadband service, whether wired or wireless.

This growth will spur greater demand for Internet-based products that have been previously accessible only to Internet-savvy users (like VoIP and security).  As more and more users get connected, Internet-based products will proliferate. Web content, advertising, e-commerce sites and online transactions will become the norm.

Businesses and professionals have now found the Internet to be an indispensable tool for their personal and business-communication requirements, operations and sales.

How is Vocal’s performance in the market right now?

The market acceptance of Vocal has been good. Our existing subscribers have experienced the advantages and benefits our product offers for their business and for their personal use as well. However, there is still much work to be done in terms of educating the market on how VoIP technology works and understanding that it is a product that is truly easy to use, does not require any large investment and can be integrated into existing networks.

What are the plans of the company for its web hosting and data services businesses?

We plan to replicate Pacific Internet’s success in the data-center business in the region (Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore) as there is a growing market for hosting and colocation services in the Philippines. We will continue to invest and strengthen our capabilities in these areas. We aim to support our business customers in their backup and disaster-recovery requirements.

Does the Singapore office of Pacific Internet consider the Philippines the most challenging market, given the fact of the low Internet penetration in the country?

On the contrary, our head office in Singapore sees the tremendous opportunity for growth in the Philippine market. Yes, it is a challenging market, and was greatly affected by the lack of access to broadband infrastructure while the market for dial-up Internet users decreased. We have, however, proven ourselves to be resilient and highly adaptable to the fast-changing market conditions, and we are very well-positioned to take advantage of the uptrend in the data and communications market.

What is the direction of Pacific Internet as far as providing connectivity to the SMEs is concerned?

As mentioned earlier, Pacific Internet has shifted its focus from residential to corporate, and SMEs are our primary target market. We will continue to serve the needs of our professional users with business-grade products and services. Our focus, product development and sales and marketing efforts are all directed toward supporting corporate, SMEs and business users. Pacific Internet will continue to offer premium Internet-access services but will build on its core IP expertise to build more value-added services and solutions on top of this access.

How would you describe your stint with Pacific Internet Philippines?

Exhilarating! I see the challenges as opportunities for personal growth and learning. I am motivated by the hard work that my team puts in and the loyalty of our residential and business customers. We have much to accomplish as a team, and there are many trophies that will be won, as long as we stay focused on executing our plans. It’s not hard to find the way, as long as we keep our eyes on the one thing that really matters—the customer.

Can we expect partnerships with other companies, such as the one with Cisco this year?

As a group, Pacific Internet will continue to establish partnerships with established market leaders across the region. We are working closely with a leading WiMax vendor for our wireless infrastructure, and strengthening our existing relationship with a leading unified threat management vendor for managed security. We now use two major wireless broadband vendors for our wireless point-to-point corporate solutions. Definitely, expect Pacific Internet to announce more partnerships in the future.

Does the company expect a major upsurge in the use of VoIP in the Philippines this year?

The current VoIP market is small, but we are confident that our product has a big potential. VoIP is a replacement for traditional voice that gives the consumer the advantage of reduced IDD costs. This market is huge in the Philippines, with the growing number of foreign companies operating locally and overseas Filipinos. VoIP will grow as it offers efficiency for the operator and savings for the end users. Market adoption of VoIP will continue to increase in the coming years.

The number of Filipinos working and living abroad, as well as the booming call center and business-process outsourcing industry will continue to fuel the demand for cost-efficient communications. The continued increase in broadband subscription also enables the market to experience quality VoIP services, which works well if you have a broadband connection.

Dot-com pioneer

Julia Theresa Yap has witnessed the growth of Pacific Internet Philippines from a pioneering Internet-service provider (ISP) in 1996 to the largest independent Internet communications service provider in the country today.

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