TABUK CITY, Kalinga – If Smart Communications (Smart) and Globe Telecom (Globe) will act positively on the results of their meeting with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and Tabuk City Internet users on July 27, there is hope that Internet services here will be improved before the year ends.
Lawyers Manuel Casino and Sherwin de Joya who led the representatives of Globe and Smart, respectively, have committed to the NTC en banc that they will upgrade their services in the city within the next four months.
Casino had promised that their company will upgrade its current system in the area within three months and will also construct a new cell site within the period provided it can enter into a contract of lease with a landowner it is currently negotiating.
On the other hand, De Joya assented when Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba asked that Smart to shorten its existing upgrading schedule for the city of six months to four months.
To ensure that the desired improvement of services of the telcos in the city is achieved, Cordoba said that the commission will conduct monthly benchmarking activities in the city starting August until November when, he said, substantial change is already expected.
The commission will also issue a memo to the telcos to inform the public through the City Information Office the capacity of their infrastructure vis-a-vis their current number of subscribers from time to time.
It was implicitly accepted during the meeting that the cause of the weak signal in the city is the overloading of the systems of the two telcos.
The telco representatives did not protest when the Kalinga customers contented that the fact that Internet connections in the city reach their maximum speeds at night when most people are asleep is a clear proof that their systems are oversubscribed.
The users said that there is no excuse for oversubscription because demand could be forecasted and that the capacity of the infrastructure could be based on the projected demand.
At the instance of Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba who said that with its population, Tabuk City is entitled to an office with customer service representative and technician, the commission will also write the two telcos to establish their offices in the city.
The Smart representatives were silent when the customers told the NTC that the company’s technicians are based in Santiago City, Isabela and they allocate only two days a month for Tabuk City and in Paracelis, Mtn. Province resulting in delays in the repair of stricken connections in the city of as long as four months at times.
MC unimplemented
It was also found out during the meeting that Smart and Globe have yet to comply with Memorandum Circular No. 07-08-2015, one of the two issuances the Kalinga users have accused the NTC of sitting on.
Kalinga users recently wrote both houses of Congress to probe the fitness of the current NTC officials to lead the telecommunications regulatory agency saying that they have failed to implement Circular No. 07-08-2015 and Memorandum Order No. 07-07-2011 which, according to them, are vital for the protection of the rights of Internet users in the country.
Among other purposes, MO No. 07-07-2011 mandates the telcos to set the minimum speeds of their Internet plans and to properly inform the public of the data while MC No. 07-08-2015 requires the telcos to specify their average data connection speeds per area.
At first, the representatives of the telcos claimed they have complied with MC No. 07-08-2015 but they did not protest when NTC Regulation Branch Acting Director Imelda Walcien declared that according to records of her office, the telcos have not submitted data on their average speeds per area.
Cordoba and Deputy Commissioner Edgardo Cabarios explained that although the commission already directed the telcos to submit their average data connection rates per area in 2015, they did not push for compliance because they did not see any point in having the data when the agency still does not have the means to verify the same.
The commissioners informed that presently they can only implement Memorandum Circular No. 07-08-2015 in Metro Manila where they are using rented measuring equipment because the purchase of nine units of the measuring tool is still pending with the procurement service of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) due to changes in the specifications.
They said that they expect the equipment to be purchased at the end of the year with more sets to be bought in the next two years to enable them to fully implement the memorandum circular within five years.
However, when the users pointed out that MC No. 07-07-2015 mandates the telcos to specify their average connection speeds per area without mentioning any conditions and had asked the commission if due to this, the telcos are not liable for non-compliance, Cabarios said that the Regulation Branch will study if there is sufficient ground to file administrative cases against the telcos.
Absurd
The Kalinga Internet users doubted the claims of the NTC and the telcos that the telcos are compliant with MO 07-07-2011 and had asked for proofs. The NTC and the telcos agreed to provide the minimum speed data contained in the active plans.
They branded as absurd the information appearing in an online advertisement of the Globe that the minimum speed of its fiber optic plans is 30 percent of the maximum speed with 80 percent service reliability and 256 Kbps with 80 percent minimum service reliability for its LTE and DSL plans.
Cabarios confirmed that given the declared 80 percent minimum reliability of the minimum guaranteed speed, the 256 Kpbs speed could still go down 20 percent of the time.
The users said that another reason they call the minimum speed set by Globe absurd is the plans in the advertisement are packaged with Spotify, Hooq, NBA League Pass and Netflix services pointing out that in its information on its products online, the Globe states that to enjoy Netflix, one has to have a minimum speed of 3 Mbps.
When the users asked if the Globe ad containing the information on minimum speeds was approved by the NTC, the Department of Trade and Industry and Advertisement Standard Council as required by the process of producing telco advertisement materials, Cabarios sidestepped the question and responded that under the law, Internet services are value added services which means they are classified as deregulated and are governed by the contract between the consumer and the supplier.
Cordoba confirmed the allegation of Cabarios saying that when Republic Act No. 7925, the law governing the regulatory functions of the NTC, was passed in 1995, the Internet was not yet in existence which eventually resulted into its being classified as value added service which “in a way, removed us from the equation.”
Cordoba said the NTC is pushing for the amendment of the law such that Internet service will become a basic service.
Cordoba said the agency has repeatedly asked Congress to update the P200.00 a day penalty per day set in the 1936 Public Service Act so that the agency could meaningfully intervene in the provision of Internet services but the proposals failed to take off the ground each time.
Cordoba said that according to the computation from the National Economic Development Authority, had the penalty been consistently updated, the P200.00 would now be worth P1.3M.
He said that in the present Congress, a bill seeking the amendment of the penalty provision was filed by Congressman Victor Yap, chairman of the Information and Communication Technology Committee, even as he expressed the hope that this time, the much needed law will be passed.
Cordoba, however, said that despite the constraints hounding the local Internet services, the country has managed to be the number 1 BPO voice and number 2 BPO non-voice in the world which, according to him, would not be possible if the local Internet service is really that bad.**Estanislao Albano, Jr.
