MULTIMEDIA conglomerate Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is as hopeful as rival Globe Telecom Inc. that a peering arrangement among Internet service providers will be switched on as soon as possible, as this would drastically improve the quality of Internet in the country.
Eric R. Alberto, executive vice president at the country’s leading telecommunications company, agreed that both telcos must link into one open internet exchange, as this would help improve broadband speeds in the country.
“We are desirous to close their peering arrangement with us so that we can, together, as the leading telcos in the country, alleviate the Internet customer experience,” he said.
However, in peering with one another, the telcos must ensure that traffic exchange will be equal. Else, they should adopt a specific peering model that is widely practiced globally.
The two listed telecommunications companies are currently in talks for a bilateral Internet protocol (IP) peering agreement. The dominant carrier has sent its proposal to Globe. But the proposal, according to Globe Telecom COO Gil B. Genio, is far from what his group hopes for: an all encompassing exchange that allows both parties to access content and applications hosted by the former.
“The proposal does not go far enough even to meet the definition of peering. We are hoping any bilateral arrangement with PLDT would effectively reduce latency of local intent and improve Internet speed,” he said.
Genio said his group’s proposal involves a direct access to the data centers hosted by PLDT.
“As is, PLDT’s proposed peering agreement won’t be effective in improving the country’s internet speed as it doesn’t allow Globe customers to directly access content and applications hosted by the PLDT group without exception,” Ginio said.
Globe, he added, is encouraging its rival to revise its proposal.
Both parties should ensure that an ideal peering relationship is established, he explained, adding that IP peering entails generally accepted practices of peering where one has access to the other and vice versa, “unconditionally.“
PLDT is currently connected with the government-owned Philippine Open Internet Exchange (Phopenix).
Essentially, the peering of IPs allows the exchange of Internet traffic among data service providers, making it faster for the transfer of information from one point to another.
To do this, ISPs have to be linked via an internet exchange.
Without IP peering, local in-country internet traffic need to travel out of Philippine borders and be exchanged abroad before reaching its local destination. Enterprises that are IP peered with Phopenix will have cost savings, as local in-country internet traffic exchanged through Phopenix will not count against the use of international network links or backhaul usage.
As local in-country internet traffic will not need to transit abroad, service providers will exchange with each other lower latency — that is, better response times — and deliver this lower latency for the enjoyment of consumers.
Lower latency for consumers means a faster, more reliable, and more stable internet connectivity experience, particularly for e-commerce transactions with businesses, financial institutions, and government frontline services.
Simply put, IP peering allows consumers to enjoy “more robust, fault- and attack-resistant network infrastructure, which is personally important to consumers in their transactions through the internet, such as tax filing, banking, e-commerce, Skype conversations with family and friends overseas, among the many uses of fast, reliable, and inexpensive internet.”
2 comments
In August 2011, PLDT was rejecting IP peering, impending competition really changes a lot.
“Dominant carrier PLDT has filed an opposition to a proposed memorandum circular on IP peering policy being drafted by the National Telecommunications Communications (NTC), arguing that the government agency in charge of the Internet exchange may not be capable of maintaining security and service quality.
In a position paper, PLDT said compelling Internet service providers to connect via a single Internet exchange as proposed in the draft NTC order may create a bottleneck that could hamper rather than raise the service quality of Internet service providers (ISPs).
“This is a case where the proposed solution may just compound the problem,” said Ramon R. Isberto, PLDT head for public affairs.”
PLDT has been rejecting peering arrangement since the 1990s. They even mentioned recently that most of the content is outside the PH so a peering would be useless. Now they are saying it will improve the internet speed of the country. Napaka-sinungaling nila.
Globe on the other hand was supposedly given the chance to shake up PLDT in the 1990s. But they basically did what PLDT was doing for the last 20 years.
Just to compare, a SME internet line in the US costs about 170USD for 100mbps and that is 100% CIR. Here they are offering 1/10 of that at double or even triple the price.
Let the other foreign investors come in to offer VAS (Internet) services. That should shake both of these two giants to offer better and cheaper services.