SINCE 95 percent of the Web content accessed by Filipinos is sourced overseas, the challenge to improve Internet quality in the Philippines should be addressed in two ways, a ranking official of the country’s largest telecommunications provider said over the weekend.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) EVP Ernesto R. Alberto said there are several hurdles that local Internet service providers (ISPs) must endure to at least keep pace with the caliber of Internet of their neighbors.
For one, bulk of the content accessed in the Philippines is from North America and, to a lesser extent, Europe. There is also a shift in the Filipino consumer’s habit toward multimedia content, particularly high-definition streaming video, which is much more bandwidth-heavy than other Web traffic.
Hence, the required international-cable capacity to carry the growing multimedia traffic from abroad is rising rapidly.
These challenges can be addressed in two ways. The first one involves heavy investments in additional international cable capacity to stay ahead of the soaring demand for multimedia content.
Second is the caching of Web content in data centers to localize foreign data. This allows for a faster exchange of information, removing the need to course through foreign lands before the content arrives in a device.
“Local caching really helps, but this has limits. A lot of the most sought-after Internet content is very dynamic. Like, you cannot locally cache news sites or secure web sites such as those of banks and other financial institutions,” Alberto said.
Despite this, PLDT operates six data-center facilities with a current total capacity of over 3,200 racks. Two more data centers will be operational by the first half of 2016, which will raise the company’s total capacity to over 8,000 racks.
In another parallel effort to improve the Internet experience of its customers, the multimedia conglomerate is rolling out more domestic fiber-optic cable facilities for use in both backbone transmission and distribution to the home or office.
Smart and Sun Cellular are also rolling out high-speed 3G and 4G/ long-term evolution facilities to further improve the coverage and quality of mobile and wireless broadband services. “Internet infrastructure has many ‘moving parts.’ We have to undertake various simultaneous initiatives to make changes that will really benefit our customers and the public,” Alberto said.
His statement came after Globe General Counsel Froilan M. Castelo called his rival’s move to host a local Internet protocol (IP)-peering exchange node as something insufficient to boost the quality of Internet in the country.
Castelo said the dominant telco’s arrangement with the Philippine Open Internet Exchange (Phopenix) does not require the dominant carrier to exchange traffic with other ISPs via the local Internet exchange.
Instead, the deal will only allow PLDT clients to peer directly with government web sites through the Phopenix. He said an all-inclusive IP peering arrangement among ISPs will keep a substantial portion of local data traffic and the elapsed transmission and reception time is kept to a minimum, which means access time to response time is shorter and the application access is faster.
Last month PLDT reached an agreement with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to provide fiber-optic facilities that link the company to the government’s Internet exchange. The Pangilinan-led firm also provided rack space in ePLDT’s Vitro Data Center facility, where the science agency has set up and operates its third Phopenix node. This network-peering arrangement further improves the resiliency of the government Internet exchange and gives PLDT subscribers better access to government web sites hosted in Phopenix.
“Local peering will help improve the Web experience of Internet users in the country by keeping local traffic local. That is why we struck an agreement with the DOST and why we are pursuing another one with Globe,” Alberto said. Phopenix is the only exchange in the local Internet industry operated by a neutral institution that allows the exchanges of Internet traffic in a free-market environment among local internet and data service providers.
“But we need to combine this effort with other initiatives to really have a substantial and sustained impact on the Internet experience of our customers,” Alberto said.
He noted that his camp has initiated talks with rival Globe Telecom Inc. for an IP-peering arrangement as part of the former’s comprehensive program to improve local Internet linkages, and raise the quality of Internet services in the country.
Officials from his group’s end reached out to their Globe counterparts to open discussions on a bilateral IP-peering agreement as early as August this year.
“Our discussions with Globe are part of a broader effort of PLDT to improve Internet services in the country,” Alberto said. “We are pursuing several parallel initiatives that taken together will help deliver an improved Internet experience for Filipinos.”
2 comments
I say cancel their franchises.
Nothing said about what the users can expect in terms of speed and cost of internet in 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, and so on till 20 years after. Nothing said about how PLDT’s service will compare with the best in Asia after said number of years. PLDT’s statements are mere obfuscation or squid tactics to continue their lousy service. There is no motivation to change because there is no pressure/regulation from the government and they are very profitable as it is, providing lousy service.