FASTER AND CHEAPER INTERNET

FASTER AND CHEAPER INTERNET

Dear Mr. President: Our present system of producing and distributing electric power may not be the best, but it serves our purposes right now. Our present system is composed of three parts, namely production, transmission and distribution. For the most part, the National Power Corporation (NPC) does the production, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) does the transmission, and Meralco does the last mile distribution in some areas while the electric cooperatives do the last mile distribution in the other areas.

In the case of the internet, there is really no “production” so to speak, but the “transmission” if we can call it that, is done by the telecommunications companies such as Globe, PLDT and Converge. In the old days, the common practice was for the telcos to stay away from the “last mile”, business, being supposedly content to make money as “Value Added Networks” (VANs). In those days, the “last mile” business was somehow “conceded” to the “Value Added Service” (VAS) providers such as the “Internet Service Providers” (ISPs). As it is done now however, most telcos go into both the VAN/VAS businesses, practically preventing the smaller ISPs from doing any business.

Ideally, Mr. President, the VAN component should be the “production and transmission” side of the business, while the VAS component should be the “last mile” side of the business. The reason why I am bringing this up Mr. President, is to bring forward my suggestion that the government should invest more in the VAN component, so that the internet could become cheaper and faster. In technical terms Sir, the VAN component could be considered as the “backbone” of the internet infrastructure, and the “last mile” are those that are “attached” to it.

Figuratively speaking Mr. President, the internet “backbone” is like a superhighway, and the service roads are like the “last mile”. The more lanes there are in the superhighways, the faster the traffic could flow, because the more vehicles could travel through it. Unlike the superhighways where the land area is finite therefore the number of lanes that could be added are finite, the bandwidth that could be added to the internet “backbone” is infinite.

Although some people might disagree with me, Mr. President, I will take the risk of suggesting to you that the telcos should be allowed to use the government owned internet “backbone” for free, in the same way that private bus companies are allowed to use our public highways for free. But perhaps as a trade-off, the telcos could agree to give more “space” to smaller ISPs on the “last mile” side of the business?

If it is not too much to ask Sir, could you also consider the possibility of providing incentives to cooperatives, so that they could also go into the ISP business, just like the electric coops? Since the ISP business is a good business, that idea would make many cooperatives grow in size, and along with that, their members could also make more money, perhaps enough for them to get out of poverty? IKE SENERES/10-25-2024

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