The Current Low Rate of PC Rent at I-Cafés

Much has been said about the current low rate of i-café rentals. Nowadays, P15/hr seems to the average in many areas although P10/hr and even lower can also be found. Some owners believe they still make money at such low rates but the reality is they don’t if they will only pay the right taxes and charge the depreciation costs of their fixed assets.

Yes, some may justify that they still earn profits at such low rates but that is not the topic of this thread. What we want to discuss here is how to arrest the increasing attrition rate among the players in the industry. There are always new entrants who outnumber the ones closing shops; hence, the continuing problem of oversupply which, in turn, causes the ongoing price war.

Creating cartels for uniform pricing and even locally-legislated floor pricing (although this is against the law) had failed and are bound to fail considering the current situation in the industry. This is the sad scenario for those who dream of having uniform price of say P20/hr in their areas of operation.

Then, what must be done to prevent or correct the oversupply of computer units for rent in an area? Should the local government unit (LGU) be asked to enact more stringent rules and close those shops violating them? Something similar to this, I should say.