With the recent talk on tapping China as a third telco player, we discuss what are the potential impacts of having a new player come in our current telco market.
First is we need to provide definition of what we mean as the government coming in as a third telco. Will it provide cable landing station down to the customers. In this case the government can show the they are investing into the network and not necessarily operating the network. When we say investing in the network, it doesn’t mean to operate and maintain it. It has the option to outsource it to the private sectors which have the expertise to operate the network.
The main goal is not for profitabiliy, but universal access to all segments of the market.
Do you feel that a third player would be enought to break up the “DUOPOLY” ?
We are saying that there are roles to play for big players and small players. It doesn’t have to mean that only the big player infrastructure can be used. There are many new technologies that small players can maximize. we don’t need a third telco player, we need 300!
We need to make sure that investors would be serious, to understand that they can enter the market and operate and sustain the market. Would having more telco player bring faster and more affordable player? once competition happens, it will definitely
see also: DICT and DOST projects in 2017 SONA
The 2 telco is actually claiming that there are already improvement in terms of their infrastructure. As based on the actual bandwidth, there may have been improvements but not significant changes. There is an app PROJECT BASS by Wilson Chua that monitors bandwidth statistics.
What is Project Bass?
BASS stands for Bandwidth And Signal Strength monitoring tool. BASS volunteers crafted an easy to use Android app for phones with OS v5.1 and above. We made this free. And made it as Winthrop Yu puts it: “lightweight & uses minimal time and data”. It was a pleasure to work with this fantastic group of volunteers. As Ollay Rullan said “they carved out chunks of their time” to make this tool available.
How it works
Download the app to your phone from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.orozco.netreport. The app will do a spot measurement of your internet bandwidth. It also sends us the GPS coordinates and signal strength of your current location. We also determine your handphone model, make and OS details. (This triggers a warning that the “app is requesting permission to make calls”). The app doesn’t make calls. Promise! 🙂
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectBassApp
Download Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.orozco.netreport&hl=en
