THE Internet is among the very few things that stand between me and a complete nervous breakdown. Because it is true that the world is increasingly becoming ever smaller and hyper-connected, so that, I think, the books have changed and the five basic needs of man are food, water, shelter, clothing and Wi-Fi.
Cut off the “aircon” and the television for days on end and I would be OK, but cut off the home Internet or my mobile data and I could go as far as to steal, if it means sneak-scanning neighborhood Wi-Fi hotspots and second-guessing passwords.
For as long as I am connected, I am not very particular with my connection. But, really, who is? No matter your original subscription, it is sometimes hard to keep your stripe straight. And while some brag brand loyalty and identify themselves as a Smart person or a Globe person, I’m an Internet person and I am party to seamless connectivity and accessibility, regardless of whether you’re a Globe person or a Smart person.
Some choose their service provider on the basis of service speed, while some, regardless of network, are surprisingly excellent observant and bitch that Internet speed in the Philippines is in a sorry state. Then again most of the things in the Philippines have always been in a sorry state, and it’s as if we haven’t been here forever and we’ve only just begun to habituate it.
The situation is that we’re one of the countries with the slowest Internet. The reason, experts say, is oversubscription resulting in congestion. The majority common paying subscribers are squeezed into bottleneck communal infrastructure, the way we’re squeezed into scarce MRT trains and rush-hour Edsa.
There are faster connections available in exclusive Metro Manila villages, and then some available to big companies, but these are through less-treaded infrastructure, where you have to pay a price.
And, while we’re at it, definitely it’s a double kill that we’re also one of the countries with the most expensive Internet, basically because we are subscribed to different Internet service providers (ISP) that don’t “peer” with each other. In other words, your ISP and mine are not friends; they are, well, enemies, and, because of that, we have to pay more.
Networks that don’t peer with each other ostensibly “pay” for exchange of traffic or for transit through each other’s toll roads (an expense that the consumers shoulder, if I may be allowed to be annoyingly repetitive). Or it can be beneath each other’s dignity, so as an e-mail a PLDT subscriber sends from Point A has to go through Points (and I sing) C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V—gasp!—W-X-Y-and-Z first before it reaches his Globe-subscriber sweetheart in Point B.
They’re literally worlds apart because it’s like traveling domestically to Cebu on your PLDT plane, and your plane has to go through Hongkong or Paris or New York first for a little “Hello. Goodbye.” sightseeing before you reach your destination, because your PLDT plane doesn’t want to pass through Globe air territory on pride, and you have to pay for the inconvenience.
Gosh. I read somewhere that Globe has, since long ago, talked PLDT pala into IP Peering (mutually free traffic swap) to once and for all ease our dense data traffic, but PLDT turned it down apparently because it’s bad for business. PLDT’s business, and Globe’s for that matter, is connecting people; what’s befuddling is that, at the most basic level, they are somewhat disconnected. Why else do we have to depend on international cables, no matter that we could mutually depend on ourselves? That is, well, so Philippines.
Apart from faster and less expensive Internet, Globe said IP Peering, if implemented, will, among a bevy of other benefits, encourage multinational companies to locate their Web sites, services and businesses in the country.
PLDT drafted its own proposal and argued that it had shelled out obscenely on more and bigger infrastructure, and the agreement would give smaller players vested advantage to free-ride PLDT’s massive virtual toll roads, without giving so much benefit and motivations for peering to PLDT itself. But if PLDT hosted an IP Peering exchange with the government through Philippine Open Internet Exchange with the intent to boost local Internet speed, then why not make it universal?
We are not asking for an immediate 1-Gbps fiber-optic high-speed connection they’re enjoying in Singapore; like asking for something as basic as an honest president, that is too much to ask. But PLDT and Globe are companies whose supposed raison d’etre is to, quote unquote, go every which way in tapping into infinite possibilities to make it better for their customers. But (read: absolute) IP Peering is one of these possibilities Globe eagerly wants, but PLDT apparently (read: absolutely) glosses over, because for crying out loud PLDT is big, PLDT is uppity and because PLDT is a superstar.
And to ask PLDT to IP Peer is like asking Rodrigo Duterte to run for the presidency—with public interest at stake, he knows that he is needed; he knows that he is wanted, but, no, he’s not running for the presidency. Because he’s a superstar.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano