The Sorry State Of Internet In The Philippines

The image on this article showing the download, upload and ping results of my 1Mbps DSL broadband subscription  was taken using SpeedTest.Net while I was singly connected to the Internet and writing this blog. I used the Tokyo server for the test because that is where the parents of my 3-year old grandchild (apo) reside and make weekend video calls to our house using Yahoo Messenger (YM). The results show only twenty-eight (28%) of the bandwidth promised by my ISP and clearly indicate the sorry state of the Internet in the Philippines. And yes, the calls between my apo and her Mommy are always choppy with frame-by-frame video at Tokyo side. By the way, my son pays 2,600 yen (PhP1,300) per month for their 100Mbps connection while my 1Mbps monthly subscription costs PhP995.

We all know that Internet connectivity is the lifeblood of the i-café business. The success of an i-café is entirely dependent on the quality of connection it gets from its Internet service provider. No connection to the Internet means no income for the business so I can only sympathize with i-café owners who always get the losing end on their deals with service providers. Currently, i-café owners who get good Internet connections are much lesser in number than those getting lousy ones.

The sorry state of the Internet in a country is an indication of its bad economic situation. Recent studies had established that Internet connectivity has influence on a nation’s economic growth. A ten (10%) increase in connectivity of a country results to 1.38% growth of its economy. Does our government know this and aim for quality improvement and increased connections to the Internet? I hope they do.

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