AS global investors and multinational companies are increasingly turning their gaze southward to the 10 dynamic economies that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the region continues to compete among the world’s fastest-growing markets. In the field of e-commerce, Asean’s Internet economy—from online shopping to games and advertising—is seen surging to about $200 billion in the next decade, according to a joint research by Google Inc. and Temasek Holdings Pte. That growth will be driven by an increase in the number of Internet users, affordable smartphones and affordable data.
There’s doubt the Philippines can avail itself of the $200-billion opportunity, given the current state of the country’s Internet infrastructure. For starters, the Philippines has the slowest average Internet speed among Asean members, at 3.6 megabytes per second (Mbps). We lag behind Lao PDR (4 Mbps), Indonesia (4.1 Mbps), Myanmar and Brunei Darussalam (4.9 Mbps), Malaysia (5.5 Mbps), Cambodia (5.7 Mbps), Vietnam (13.1 Mbps), Thailand (17.7 Mbps) and Singapore (61 Mbps). These figures come from an infographic made by Asean DNA, which describes itself as a site “to promote a better understanding and appreciation of shared values and common characteristics of Asean.”
As Filipinos bear the brunt of slow connection, they are made to pay a steep price for unreliable Internet service. On the average, Filipino consumers spend about P1,000 ($22) a month for Internet service, with speeds of up to 2 Mbps (P500 per Mbps), while some telecommunication companies offer speed of up to 5 Mbps for around P2,000 ($44) a month. This is expensive compared to Singapore’s largest telecommunications company Singtel that offers 15 mbps for S$36.9, or about P1,312 ($29) a month (P87 per Mbps). Thailand’s True Internet provides 12 Mbps for about 799 baht, or P1,100 ($25) a month (P92 per Mbps).
In a BusinessMirror report, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto said, “Internet service in the Philippines is expensive at $18.19 per Mbps compared with the average of $5.21 across the globe.” The senator then urged incoming President Rodrigo R. Duterte to order whoever he will appoint as chief of the newly formed Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to crack the whip on telecommunication firms that fail to improve Internet services.
Recto said Duterte has at his disposal the newly created department to crack the whip on “uncooperative” telecommunication firms. “All the incoming president needs to do is to hire the best man for the job, the best Cabinet secretary for the newly created DICT to ensure better services from telecommunication firms.”
Hopefully, the DICT can live up to the task of helping the incoming president win the war against inefficiency in the telecommunications sector. This early, hopes are flying high that Duterte can make the telcos behave along the government’s objective to make nationwide Internet services more efficient and affordable to better serve the public and contribute to national development. Only when we have an Internet speed at par with the fastest in the region can we begin to craft sound strategies to claim our share of the $200-billion opportunity the Asean Internet revolution is expected to create in the next decade.