TABUK CITY, Kalinga – As part of its program to upgrade its Internet services in this city, Globe Telecom will construct three new cell sites in the locality this year and next year.
Alma Aquino, service manager for Globe LTE at Home, informed during the exit conference of the speed testing of Internet connections in the city conducted by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on October 19 and 20, informed that one of the cell sites will be constructed in barangay Bulanao.
She said that negotiations for the lot is ongoing and that construction will commence as soon a contract is signed.
She said that one of the cell sites to be constructed next year will be located also in the Bulanao area and the other will be in the Poblacion.
She also said that the company will address the problem of “offsite” connections in the city by locking the modems to the cell sites they are supposed to be connected to starting next year explaining that the technical modification to allow the locking takes time to effect.
“Offsite” connections are those used in places different from where they were installed, a remedy resorted to so that people could still avail of Internet services in areas where the capacity of the telco is already saturated.
The NTC speed testing team discovered that one of the Globe connections tested during the activity is supposed to be located in Penablanca, Cagayan according to its documents.
Meanwhile, Smart Communications said that it has no plans to upgrade its facilities in the city claiming that it’s services are satisfactory and that more than half of its capacity is being utilized.
Mel Marfa, the Smart team leader, informed that pending the company’s action on its commitment to the NTC that it will set up an office in the city complete with customer service representative and a technician, the company has hired the services of a local Internet technician to take care of repairs of its lines in the city.
Previously, the technicians attending to repairs in city were based in Santiago City. They come twice a month within which time they also attend to repairs in Paracelis, Mtn. Province.
During a dialogue among the NTC commissioners, representatives of the telcos and Internet users of the city at the NTC national office on July 27, the two telcos committed to upgrade their services in the city until this November.
The monthly speed testing to establish the current quality of the services of the telcos in the city and to monitor their efforts to improve the same is being carried out by NTC in coordination with the Tabuk City LGU. **By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
