The Philippine Online Chronicles

The Internet isn’t just a luxury for people who want to download movies that haven’t appeared in theaters yet, or shop without going to the mall. As business speaker Carlo Ople points out in his blog, “the Internet has become an integral part of our life.” It gives the current generation an advantage the previous ones did not have – a means of reaching out to and interacting with a wide audience in a short amount of time, all from the comfort of a personal computer.

As such, the Internet has vast potential, not just for the individual, but for businesses as well. According to Ople, the net opens opportunities for “blogging, social media, e-commerce, affiliate marketing, and all forms of online businesses.”

But while the Philippines has Internet, complaints by users about slow, intermittent connections are rife. Many online forums discuss why Internet in the Philippines is so slow, which service provider might solve the problem of lagging Internet, and how come it’s easier to get a smooth flow of Internet in one place than in another.

Lagging behind

According to the online Internet speed resource speedtest.net, the average download speed in the Philippines is 2.59 mbps, with an average upload time of 0.68 mbps. Most people wouldn’t find anything to complain about this. A speed of 500 Kbps to 1 Mbps allows one to check e-mail, stream low-quality videos and music, and view simple websites. With a speed of around 2 mbps, one can send and receive e-mails with larger attachments, download songs and movies, surf complex websites, and watch live digital broadcasts.

If one compares the Philippines’ average Internet speed to other countries, however, it becomes evident that the Philippines is still missing out. Mongolia, for instance, boasts an average nationwide download speed of 4.81 mbps. Kyrgyzstan is a bit faster with 5.36 mbps. In the United States, the average Internet speed is 7.63 mbps. In Japan, it’s much faster Internet at 17.63 mbps. The fastest in the world, though, belongs to the Republic of Korea with a staggering 23.16 mbps download speed.

“In countries…like South Korea and Japan where Internet connection speeds average between 15 Mbps and 20 Mbps, applications like telemedicine, educational services, standard and high-definition video, high-quality telepresence, high-definition surveillance, and smart or intelligent building control are possible,” says Philstar.com.

For now this remains out of reach for your typical local business. Out of 180 countries listed on speedtest.net, the Philippines only comes in at 76^th place for download speed and 66^th for upload speed.

Going online

Slow Internet poses a problem as more businesses go online. These include start-up businesses based at home, larger businesses wanting to innovate, and businesses operating entirely online.

J. Angelo Racoma writes in the Manila Bulletin that “entrepreneurship” is a growing field.

“Who doesn’t know a writer, a blogger, a photographer, a web developer or designer who earns good money from doing projects for clients, both here and abroad?” Racoma writes. “These are independent individuals, mostly working off of their own computers and broadband connections, many of which are highly mobile. They can be students, they can be part-timers, they can be running small businesses full-time.”

Racoma adds that these ventures have been lucrative – a high school student with a website, for instance, might make more money than an office employee through AdSense and affiliate links.

Besides “professional freelancers” and entirely web-based businesses, such as online stores, previously established businesses are putting themselves up on the internet. Sometimes this means simply putting up a website for one’s company.

“As a business owner, you need to take advantage of this market [of internet users],” says an article on Small Business Philippines. “Because there is always a customer looking for the service, product or information that you are offering.”

Business websites could serve as an “online business card,” the article continues. “A website increases awareness about you, your business, your products and services. When a customer hears about you or your business, the most likely place he will look first is the internet.”

Need for speed

Other times, businesses may move entire branches of their operations online.

For instance Julie’s Bakeshop, an established name in baked products since 1981, recently teamed up with the online-based PLDT-SME Nation to improve its services, which company execs said would help it grow and improve the receiving and processing of product orders.

The need for faster Internet to augment the country’s business sector is only set to grow. Knowing this, Internet providers have been working to deliver quicker connections.

Among them is Globe Telecom, one of the country’s leading internet providers, which announced earlier this month that it would be heavily investing in its broadband services.

“We plan to improve the pervasiveness of our mobile broadband and WiMAX [wireless interoperability microwave access] Internet services this year,” said Globe president and CEO Ernesto Cu. “We continue to see broadband as a growth area for the telecommunications industry.”

Business owners can only hope that Internet providers can keep up with their need for faster connections.

Photo: “Internet Speed Test” by Jo, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved.

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