RESTRUCTURING THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY 2018
Y.M. REYES, PECE 0346
PROPOSED
TELECOMMUNICATIONS PLAYERS
The
Third Telecommunication Player, who will partner with Philippine companies or
corporations, shall be afforded a fair playing field to get on board soonest. Entry
into the Telecom arena of unfamiliar market and unknown business options in the
present status of our Telecomm industry may setback the Third Telecom Player’s
time table to achieve positive results of meeting the objectives set by the
government that may frustrate everyone’s expectations.
PUTTING THE HOUSE IN ORDER
Major concern in the attainment of reaching out Telecom services to remote places of fragmented islands of the country is the communication infrastructures. It will take years for the Third Telecomm Player to level up with the dominant Service Provider’s infrastructures. Possible alterative options are the existing infrastructures of the electric companies.
Government’s
program of providing electricity to remote rural areas is progressive than
providing telephone service in the rural areas (only half of the total
Municipalities and Cities in the Philippines have telephone connections).
Electric infrastructures provide the required facilities for
Telecommunications. The idea is to piggyback on the existing infrastructures of
electrical companies. It is in this context that authorities might consider
that electric companies may venture in providing their existing infrastructures
for communications as describe in the Restructuring plan.
The
Third Telecom Player may consider the following advantages of Electric
Companies:
1.TRANSCO
– The transmission Line assets that extends where ever electric towers and
poles are installed are valuable feature. From Island Hub (IH) described above,
broadband corridors and highways can be engineered to reach remote sites in the
Philippines and serve rural areas with broadband services.
2. NGCP
– The communications infrastructures of NGCP supports links to Luzon, Visayas,
and Mindanao through their Fiber Optic Network and Microwave system.
3.Interested
Electric cooperatives in the Philippines or a Tie-up with a private telecom
companies to form the Local Hub (LH). That will venture in broadband &
Radio/TV distribution in their area may also be considered
4.PT&T
– The existing fiber optics footprints of PT&T in Metro Manila will
complement the LH idea since Metro Manila is covered by Meralco (not
Cooperative under NEA). PT&T will serve the Meralco area as Local Hub
operator.
The
above listed entities who might partner with the Third Telecom Player will
provide a broader landscape representing Public
Private Partnership. However, legislation must address the granting of
Telecommunication services in their Charters if they will venture in Broadband
Content, Networks, and Services with the Third Telecom Player.
Or
another scheme could be The Third Telecom Partner may negotiate with TRANSCO
and NGCP for the use of their respective infrastructures for a fee, with a
defined mutual agreement on responsibilities.
MAIN OBJECTIVES OF RESTRUCTURING THE TELECOM
INDUSTRY
The
main objectives of restructuring the Telecommunications Industry are as
follows:
Ø To cater the
broadband services (internet) to far remote places of the country not yet serve
by the existing Service Providers.
Ø At present, the
internet speed in the Philippines has an average of 4.5 Mbps. This as a basis,
DICT is expecting to provide at least 10 Mbps connection to all households by
2020 at a much lower cost than today’s average of Php 1,299.00 per month.
Ø Provide a
country-wide free public internet to the people.
Ø Reasonable
competitive Tariff
THE CONCEPT
In
conformance with the DICT’s pronouncement in its Executive Summary (What We
Want) regarding a) Accelerated Investments, b) Mobilized and Engaged Public and
Private Sectors, c) More Places Connected, and d) Increased Take-up Rate, a
propose concept is suggested for review, evaluation, and consideration.
The
concept is to unbundle the national free enterprise structure of
telecommunication services into an organize tiers comprising of three
components; National Hub (NH), Island Hub (IH) and Local Hub (LH). All Hubs
shall be established, operated, and maintained by a Government-Private
Corporation (the Third Telecom Player).
The
National Hub (NH)
shall comprise of all existing telecom players like PLDT, Smart, Globe, etc and
the National Hub Telecommunication Player (NHTP). All existing free enterprise
companies & corporations shall maintain their present status of providing
various fixed and mobile broadband services all over the Philippines. Their
respective interfaces with NH shall be provided for Fixed Landline
inter-connectivity. Hopefully this scheme promotes the freedom of subscribers
to choose their Service Provider, thereby promoting competition among the
telecom players to achieve a reasonable fees and a reliable and improve public
service. The creation of NHTP is the entry level of the Third Telecom Player as
Fixed Line Broadband Provider on a national scale. It was not shown in the
diagram, but a complementary asset may also be considered by them as operator
of Digital TV Broadcast, following the promising future of Hybrid Broadcast
Broadband TV. Five years from now, analog TV in the Philippines will be
migrated to digital TV. Digital Terrestrial TV Broadcast will replace the
existing analog broadcast. Alternatively, TV programs can be delivered through
the IP client-server infrastructure of the broadband networks that are link to
the subscribers down the tier (to IH and LH).
Figure 1: THREE TIERS OF BROADBAND DISTRIBUTION TO RURAL AREAS
The
Island Hub (IH)
shall cover all areas in the island; One in Luzon, One in Visayas, and one in
Mindanao. The IHTP shall operate and maintain the broadband Internet and Cable
Radio/TV services in their respective Island Hub. IH interconnectivity with
other IHs shall be provided. Depending on Subscriber’s Plan, a subscriber in
Luzon can call other subscribers in Luzon only, or he can call subscribers in
Luzon and Visayas only, or he can call subscribers in Luzon, Visayas, and
Mindanao with graduated tariff, depending on his Plan. IH can be operated and
maintained by anyone interested from the existing Telecom players or by the
Third Telecom Player, combining with the operation and maintenance of NH.
The
Local Hub
shall be formed as local units (covering areas equivalent to the electric
cooperatives’ organizational structure in the country). One LHTP for areas
covered by Cepalco (Mindanao) for example, or Beneco area (Baguio), or VECO
area (Visayas) (all Electric Cooperatives). The Local Units shall be
responsible for the distribution of broadband services to the Homes, Buildings,
Schools, Hospitals, LGUs, etc. in their respective area.
Example
set-up is as follows:
Interested
Local Hub Telecommunication Player (LHTP) shall invest and develop a business
model for their broadband and/or Radio/TV services in their respective area.
They shall put up infrastructures in their coverage area to distribute
broadband and Radio/TV services to fixed Landline subscribers; like buildings,
offices, businesses, hospitals, Local government offices and Residences.. The
LHTPs shall be interconnected to each other as shown in Figure 1. This allows
businesses and homeowners of a particular LH to select their options; Local
connectivity, Island connectivity, or National connectivity.
Radio/TV
component (cable TV) can be offered in the service package plan of LH area.
Some rural areas may want to avail programs from Metro Manila TV stations plus
radio stations DZMM and DZBB, for example, but not necessarily internet.
Hopefully this service can be affordable to ordinary folks in rural areas than
the monthly price of a broadband subscription. The positive side of this
service is the prospect of offering crisp pictures and clear sound comparable
to other cable TV reception from their respective regional repeater station in
the area..
Figure 2: NGCP’S COMMUNICATION BACKBONE LUZON VISAYAS,
MINDANAO
Figure 3: ELECTRIC COOPERATIVES’ LAST MILE CONNECTION TO
SUBSCRIBERS
OTHER AREAS OF
CONCERNS
There
are several areas of concerns in our day-to-day activities needing improved
telecommunications innovations. Authorities may evaluate and improve its
applicability.
Ø An old structure in
schools (Elementary, High School, College and University) is the LIBRARY. It is
imperative to improve our school system. Schools may look into providing a
telecom facility in the Library, and other systems as well. Telecommunication
provider may look into providing high speed broadband facilities to these
schools in order to address the
e-education needs of students, faculties, and administrative staffs. The 4G cell phones actually filled-up the gap
for their telecommunication needs as of now. But broadband capacity may not be
enough to cater all its needed applications in one platform.
A cost effective way
of providing the needs of e-education
is to subscribe for a bulk and fast Broadband service for the whole users of
the school. In principle, Service Provider can install e-center that will provide the connection to the Web. From the e-center, the telecom connections can be
propagated to the whole area of the school. Its applications are varied; LAN,
CCTVs and Voice over IP for school administration.
Ø The above set-up in
schools can also be adopted in various Municipalities. City Halls can subscribe
from Service Provider for a bulk and robust fast broadband telecom facility. A
4.5G technology is appropriate at this time and can be migrated to 5G when it
will be launch in 2020. From City Hall, the telecommunication scheme maybe a
point-to-multipoint and point-to-point connections to the Barangays. Its
applications are LAN, CCTVS, Voice over IP, Traffic monitoring, Air pollution
monitoring, Water level monitoring, and Warning system (emergencies and
calamities).
Ø For Rail Transit
operators, the existing communication links between trains and different
elements involved in operation and control within the railway infrastructure is
GSM-R. Since there are lots of Railway projects going on in the Philippines,
future acquisition of Railways communication system shall be evaluated to take
advantage of the benefits of Long Term Evolution Technology (LTE). In Europe, a road map of migrating to LTE has
been laid out with field trials scheduled on 2020 and infrastructure trials on
2021. But other countries may have embarked on earlier roll out of LTE communications
on Railways. One pitfall of getting legacy communication technology is the
timing of acquisition with the introduction of new technology.
Ø Commission on
Election usually experiences communication problems every time there will be a
national election. They have upgraded the Voting Machine but not the
communication requirements. They rely on out-sourcing the communication
networks from the Service Providers.
The Backbone
Broadband crossing Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao should be able to integrate the
Commission on Election’s requirements.
Ø In the same token as
above, PAGASA needs a WAN network that will interface with the public. The
communication system use for operations, monitoring, and control should be
supplemented with communication to the public at large.
Ø DENR is task to
monitor carbon emission in industrial and power plants. This is contained in
“DENR ADMINISTRATIVE NO. 2007-22 Series of 2007 SUBJECT GUIDELINES ON THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR CONTINUOUS EMISSION MONITORING SYSTEMS (CEMS) AND OTHER
ACCEPTABLE PROTOCOLS, 'THEREBY MODIFYING AND CLARIFYING CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF
SECTION 5, RULE X OF DAO 2000-81 AND OTHER RELATED PROVISIONS”
Effective monitoring
of CEMS from Industrial and Power Plants scattered in various sites of the
Philippines might just be on paper. Monitoring means actual data on every
sites, updated frequently on a 24/7 basis. DENR needs communication
infrastructure to cater actual data from all the Plants emitting Carbon dioxide
to DENR Head Office.
Ø For
landline connections, subscribers are charge fix rate per month irrespective
whether the subscribers use it or not. This is an inherited practice in the
Philippines a long time ago. It’s time to re-examine these practices and
policies to tune-in to the present style of living. This is the appropriate
time to reevaluate landline fix monthly rate.
Advances in technology
provided voice & video communication through the internet. There are lots
of companies providing these features like Messenger, Google Duo, Viper, Skype,
Facetime etc. In using your mobile phone, laptop, and tablet for internet
connectivity, you actually incur charges for your internet access. When the
called party has no internet connectivity that is the time you use your
landline. So, with the limited use of landline and still pay the monthly dues
seems unjust to the subscribers of landline phones.
Landline tariff should be
commensurate to phone’s use. “Call-on-demand” scheme and pay when you use your
phone, is an alternative option. It is
time now for the Internet Service Providers to innovate and use the Voice over
IP capability of the broadband and add-on charges for ancillary fees.
There
could be more communication requirements to serve the public interest under
various government agencies. Enumerated above are just a list of ideas for
innovation and attention involving communications. This list highlighted few areas
of concern for validation and review.
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