Cebu City Council clamors for faster Internet speed

WHAT can be done about slow Internet access in the country?

The  Cebu City Council yesterday asked  the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to craft   plans to improve Internet services to subscribers.

In a privilege speech, Councilor Nestor Archival Sr.  cited speed tests by  Ookla last May that showed the Philippines has one of the slowest average broadband speeds in the world.

The global survey  showed that the Philippines  ranked 176th out of 202 countries in terms of upload speed with an average of 1.53 megabits per second (mbps). This was  significantly lower than the global average of 10.59 mbps.

“While the country is focusing on building tangible infrastructure projects to take the country further towards development, it is frustrating to know that our telecommunication system – a particular case in point are the severe occurrences of dropped calls and slow Internet connection, is not in harmony with us,” Archival said.

Internet Service  Providers (ISP) requires countries to have their own Internet exchange point to allow faster exchange of local traffic from other local customers as well as a backbone provider, Archival said.

The country has the Philippine Open Internet Exchange (PHOpenIX) operated by the Department of Science and Technology.

The City Council asked Congress to hasten approval of bills for the upgrading and rehabilitation of telecommunications infrastructure.

The council also requested  Smart, Sun and Globe to reevaluate their subscribers volume against the capacity of their infrastructure in order not to compromise their services.