TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Of the 18 Internet connections tested by a team composed of engineers from the National Telecommunications (NTC) and Globe and Smart on September 5 and 6, seven failed to reach the 70 percent of the contracted speed which the team initially said was the acceptable signal strength, one could not be tested due to lack of signal and one incurred errors due to far distance from the cell site.
The speed testing was in line with the commitments of the representatives of Smart and Globe that they will upgrade their Internet services in the city until this November which they made during their dialogue with the NTC commissioners and representatives of Tabuk City Internet users on July 27.
Nine connections each of the two telcos located in the barangays of Bulanao, Bulanao Norte, Dagupan Centro, Dagupan Weste and Casigayan were tested during the two-day activity.
The team used the Ookla and the MSCORE, the official NTC software, for the testing. It was noted that the results of the two applications were not significantly different from each other.
Of the nine Globe connections, only three reached 70 percent of the contracted speeds while five ranged from as low as below 10 percent in the case of the Tabuk Farmers’ Multi-purpose Cooperative in Casigayan to 50 percent.
The team was unable to test the sixth problematic Globe line which is owned by Winnerfredo Cruz located in Purok 7, Bulanao Norte, because of lack of signal.
Engr. Christian Zapata of Globe said that they will try to correct the problem by transferring or raising the antenna but added that the long term solution would be to construct a new cell site.
Christine Reyes, daughter of Cruz, told the team that weak or inexistent signal is a common experience among people in their neighborhood.
All the three Globe connections in the Poblacion tested failed which, according to Zapata, indicated overloading of the cell site serving the area.
Six of the nine Smart lines tested exceeded 70 percent of the contracted speed. Two could only achieve 50 percent of the contracted speed because, according to the team, the antennas were moved by typhoon Lawin and needs reorientation. Due to far distance from the cell site, one of Smart connections incurred errors during the testing although it posted passable test results.
After the presentation of the test results to representatives of Tabuk City Internet users, the joint validation team attempted to change the acceptability threshold from 70 percent of contracted speed to 256 Kbps claiming that that’s the minimum speed guaranteed by the contract but would not insist when it was pointed out that in that case, there is no point to the speed testing because the available signal in the city already exceeds 256 Kpbs.
NTC Region 2 OIC-Regional Director Nelson Daquioag commented that there should be no mention of the 256 Kbps minimum speed in the report on the speed testing activity because it is inconsistent with the intent to improve the Internet services in the city.
Engr. Ronald Medel, the NTC team leader, informed that per instruction from Deputy Commissioner Delilah Deles, the next testing will be done in November to give time to the telcos to upgrade their systems.
The NTC activity was conducted in coordination with and with full cooperation of the LGU. City Hall personnel identified the subscribers who had their lines tested and had guided and assisted the team during the activity. **By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
