Wednesday 14 May 2014

Internet Business in the Philippines - Dan Andrews

Internet Business in the Philippines - Dan Andrews 

 


Internet Business in the Philippines - Dan Andrews by dm_50d3e4950fab9


Internet Business in the Philippines - Dan Andrews 


Internet Business in the Philippines - Dan Andrews 


History

The Internet first made its connection to the Philippines on March 29, 1994. On that date the Philippine Network Foundation (PHNet) connected the country and its people to Sprint in the United States via a 64 kbit/s link.[2][3][4]
A year after the connection, The Public Telecommunications Act of the Philippines was made into law. Securing a Franchise is now optional for value-added service providers. This law enabled many other organizations to establish connections to the Internet, such as to create Web sites and having their own Internet services or providing Internet service and access to other groups and individuals. These developments are very significant for the country's Internet sector.
However the growth of the Internet in the Philippines was hindered by many obstacles including unequal distribution of Internet infrastructure throughout the country, its cost and corruption in the government.[5] But these obstacles did not altogether halt all the developments. More connection types were made available to more Filipinos. Increasing bandwidth and a growing number of Filipino Internet users as years passed were proof of the continuing development of the Internet in the country.
Filipino online protest against the Cyber Crime Law of 2012
The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, codified as Republic Act No. 10175, criminalized cybersquatting, cybersex, child pornography, identity theft, illegal access to data and libel.[6] The act has been criticized for its provision on criminalizing libel, which is perceived to be a curtailment in freedom of expression. After several petitions submitted to the Supreme Court of the Philippines questioned the constitutionality of the Act,[7] the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on October 9, 2012, stopping implementation of the Act for 120 days.[8]
A Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom has been filed in the Philippine legislature to, among others, repeal Republic Act No. 10175.[9]

Timeline

A timeline of the early history of the Internet in the Philippines:[10]
August 1986: The first Philippine-based, public-access BBS [bulletin board system], First-Fil RBBS went online with an annual subscription fee of P1,000. A precursor to the local online forum, it ran an open-source BBS software on an IBM XT Clone PC with a 1200bps modem and was operated by Dan Angeles and Ed Castañeda.
1987: The Philippine FidoNet Exchange, a local network for communication between several BBSes in Metro Manila, was formed.
1990: A committee helmed by Arnie del Rosario of the Ateneo Computer Technology Center was tasked with exploring the possibility of creating an academic network of universities and government institutions by the National Computer Center under Dr. William Torres. Recommendations were made but not implemented.
1991-1993: Emergence of email gateways and services in the Philippines, including some from multinational companies like Intel, Motorola, and Texas Instruments, which used a direct Internet connection, X.25, or UCCP protocol. Local firms ETPI, Philcom, and PLDT also operated commercial X.25 networks. Another milestone: Local and international email to FidoNet users was introduced.
June 1993: With the support of the Department of Science and Technology and the Industrial Research Foundation, the Philnet project (now PHNET) was born. The Philnet technical committee, composed of computer buffs working at the DOST and representatives from the Ateneo de Manila University (Richie Lozada and Arnie del Rosario), De La Salle University (Kelsey Hartigan-Go), University of the Philippines Diliman (Rodel Atanacio and Rommel Feria), and University of the Philippines Los Baños, would eventually play a significant role in connecting the Philippines to the World Wide Web.
July 1993: Phase one of the Philnet project shifted into full gear after receiving funding from the DOST. It proved to be successful, as students from partner universities were able to send emails to the Internet by routing them through Philnet's gateway at the University of the Philippines Diliman Computer Center, which was connected to another gateway at the Victoria University of Technology in Australia via IDD Dial-Up (Hayes Modem :-).
November 1993: An additional P12.5-million grant for the first year's running cost was awarded by the DOST to buy equipment and lease communication lines needed to kickstart the second phase of Philnet, now led by Dr. Rudy Villarica.
March 29, 1994, 1:15 a.m.: Benjie Tan, who was working for ComNet, a company that supplied Cisco routers to the Philnet project, established the Philippine's first connection to the Internet at a PLDT network center in Makati City. Shortly thereafter, he posted a short message to the Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.filipino to alert Filipinos overseas that a link had been made. His message read: "As of March 29, 1994 at 1:15 am Philippine time, unfortunately 2 days late due to slight technical difficulties, the Philippines was FINALLY connected to the Internet via SprintLink. The Philippine router, a Cisco 7000 router was attached via the services of PLDT and Sprint communications to SprintLink's router at Stockton Ca. The gateway to the world for the Philippines will be via NASA Ames Research Center. For now, a 64K serial link is the information highway to the rest of the Internet world."
March 29, 1994, 10:18 a.m.: "We're in," Dr. John Brule, a Professor Emeritus in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Syracuse University, announced at The First International E-Mail Conference at the University of San Carlos in Talamban, Cebu, signifying that Philnet's 64 kbit/s connection was live.

Statistics

Internet café in the Philippines
Worldmap of internet browsers. In the Philippines 62.43% use Google Chrome, 25.15% Firefox, 6.28% Internet Explorer, 4.13% Safari.[11]
About one in three consumers in the Philippines are accessing the internet in 2011, according to a report from AGB Nielsen Philippines.[12] Among the findings in the report are:
  • 33% of Filipinos access the Internet, five percentage points below the Southeast Asian regional average of 38%.
  • Internet penetration amongst consumers aged 15 to 19 was close to two-thirds (65%) and nearly half of those in their 20‟s were online (48%).
  • There is still much room for growth for those aged 30+ – less than one quarter of consumers aged in their 30s (24%) access the Internet, 13% of consumers in their 40s, and just 4% of consumers aged 50+.
  • 52% of Filipinos have a computer with high speed Internet connection at home.
  • Home is the most common Internet access point for those aged 30 years and above close to nine in ten Internet users aged 50 years and above (86%) cite "home" as their main point of access.
  • 74% of 15–19 years identify Internet cafés as their main point of Internet access.
  • Already close to one quarter of Filipinos Internet users (24%) access the Internet on a daily basis via a mobile phone and 56% intend to access the Internet via a mobile phone in the next 12 months.
  • Over two thirds of Filipino digital consumers (67%) have visited social networking sites, compared to 40% who use email.
  • The Philippines ranked second highest for the number of people who have ever "liked" or followed a brand, company or celebrity on a social networking site (75%).
  • 61% of Filipino Internet users said they trusted consumer opinions posted online, higher than any other market in Southeast Asia and seven points above the regional average.
  • Online product reviews and discussion forums are one of the most trusted sources of recommendations in purchase decision making, second only to recommendations from family and friends.
  • Close to two thirds of digital Filipinos (64%) use social media as a resource in purchase decision making.

Broadband providers

  • Bayan Telecommunications, through BayanDSL, offers ADSL from 768 kbit/s to 3 Mbit/s.[13]
  • ComClark Network and Technology Corp offers Cable Internet known as Surestream, Wireless (WiFi) known as Wireless Anywhere Metro, Wireless fixed broadband known as Extreme Wireless, Instanet Prepaid Cards Pampanga Only and Fiber Optics.[14]
  • Eastern Telecoms Philippines Inc. (ETPI), offers ADSL from to 2 Mbit/s to 8 Mbit/s.[15]
  • Globe Telecom, offers ADSL from 1 Mbit/s to 5 Mbit/s[16] and Ultra-high speed from 8 Mbit/s to 150 Mbit/s.[17]
  • PLDT offers ADSL from 512 kbit/s to 10 Mbit/s and Fiber to the Home (FTTH) from 8 Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s.[18]
  • Sky Broadband cable internet offers speeds up to 200 Mbit/s.[19]
  • Smart Communications offers wireless fixed broadband from 512 kbit/s to 2 Mbit/s[20] and 4 Mbit/s for corporate lines using the Motorola Canopy.[citation needed] Other Products and Services include, WiMAX with the speed up to 512 kbit/s, Pocket Wi-Fi that utilizes 3G with Speeds up to 7.2 Mbit/s, and LTE Pocket Wi-Fi with speeds up to 42 Mbit/s[21]
  • Smartlink Technologies & Business Solutions Co. offers 2.4ghz Wireless (WiFi), Wireless fixed broadband, prepaid cards.[22]
  • Sun Cellular offers 3.5G-enabled wireless Internet up to 3.5 Mbit/s.[citation needed]
  • Wi-Tribe offers Wireless Internet from 1 Mbit/s to 2 Mbit/s utilizing WiMAX.[23]

Current status

Network neutrality

Philippines currently runs 3 Internet Exchange points in the Country. Philippine Open Internet Exchange (PhOPENIX), Philippine Internet Exchange (PhIX), and Philippine Common Routing Exchange (PHNET CORE). While many ISPs are interconnected to each other, PLDT is the only remaining ISP, alongside SMART Communications, to not have an established Peering Setup with local Carriers. The NTC has requested PLDT to agree to IP Peer with Globe, but PLDT denied it, allegedly on the grounds that Internet service levels could suffer because the NTC memo circular does not provide for rigorous and robust arrangements for IP peering.[24]

International connectivity

With users in Philippines access US-based sites, connectivity is a vital between Philippines and the United States. Currently, Philippines has 8 Submarine-cables; APCN, APCN-2, ASE (Asia Submarine-cable Express), EAC, TGN-IA, AAG (Asia-America Gateway), SJC (South-east Japan Cable), and Guam-Philippines with 5 Cable Landing stations in Batangas, Ballesteros, Capepisa, La Union and Nasugbu.[25]

Availability

In the Philippines, broadband Internet is usually available to consumers through 3 methods: Cable, DSL and Fiber. Cable Internet is offered through companies such as ZPDee Cable, Global Destiny Cable and Parasat "Cable21", Caceres "C3", Skyline "Cheetah", USATV1, Viacomm, Aeronet, KwikNET (Los Baños, Laguna) usually starting at 512 kbit/s to 200Mbit/s. ComClark (Pampanga) usually starting at 384 kbit/s. PLDT, BayanTel, Globe Telecom and Eastern Telecom (ETPI) offer DSL starting at 512 kbit/s up to 15 Mbit/s. Globe and PLDT are the only commercial Fiber operators offering speeds starting at 8Mbit/s to 100Mbit/s. Broadband Internet is also widely available at public Internet cafes and offices, especially in major cities. Wireless (WiFi) broadband Internet is progressively being rolled out in coffee shops, malls and major airports around the country.[citation needed]

Fiber to the home

In the Philippines, both PLDT and Globe Telecom are the only Internet Providers running fiber services. PLDT Fibr offers speeds ranging from 8 Mbit/s, 20 Mbit/s, 50 Mbit/s, and 100 Mbit/s while Globe Tattoo Torque offers 8 Mbit/s, 10 Mbit/s, 15 Mbit/s, 50 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s, and 150 Mbit/s. However, the cost of these Internet plans is quite expensive compared to other countries. For the 100 Mbit/s plan PLDT Fiber costs PHP 20,000 per month and Globe Tattoo Torque costs PHP 24,999 per month for 150 Mbit/s.[citation needed]


The Internet in the Philippines has been undergoing development since it was first made available in 1994. As of September 30, 2011, more than 30,000,000 people use the internet in the country accounting for 33% of the total population. The top-level domain of the country is .ph
World map of internet penetration (number of Internet users as a percentage of a country's population), 2012[1]

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