President Rodrigo Duterte said he wants to open the communications, media, and energy sectors to foreign players after attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Peru. "My decision now, this moment, is bubuksan ko ang Pilipinas," Duterte said upon arriving at the Davao City International Airport. He said he wanted to open these sectors "to new players to improve quality of service." "I don't want to have a quarrel with the Ayalas and Pangilinan," Duterte said, later adding that he would walk back from his comments if the conglomerates running the country's telecommunications companies drove their prices down. "Kung i-dive ninyo ang presyo ninyo, walang problema. I will forget my statement." ERC issue Duterte's comments come on the heels of his demand for officials of the Energy Regulatory Commission to resign after the suicide of director Francisco Villa Jr. The late ERC director revealed the corruption activities within the ERC in his suicide notes. "Corruption, unahin ko na lang. I'd like just to send this strong message. It's about time that we share the money of the entire country. To move faster, make the competition open to all," he said. ERC officials have refused to heed his call. In his speech, Duterte threatened to abolish ERC. - See more at: After APEC: Duterte wants to open PHL telecoms, airwaves, energy sectors
If Duterte actually does this it will be a step in the right direction for this country to move foreward with the times and curtail the currupt companies who rule all of these monopolys with an iron fist.
These guys are pretty ballsy, the drug lords were too until Duterte said the 4 magic words... "You're on the list"
Stupid move. everything will stay the same if globe etc. just lower their prices, which certainly will not lead to more bandwidth for anybody. Guess what's going to happen? LESS quality of service because they will squeeze even more people on the networks without investing in infrastructure, unless somebody is willing to live with a lower profit margin, which I think can be ruled out. Instead they should either regulate the market, tax the hell out of them and honor infrastructure investments with lower taxes. Or open up the market unconditionally to force them to improve this way. But interestingly enough these conglomerates seem to frighten Duterte more than any drug lords.
As my father used to say. Want in one hand and sh*t in the other. See which fills up first. Good luck though. Anything which could capture some of that capital flight out of the Philippines would be a good thing. With all that peso falling to 50 to a dollar stuff. Er, wait, I like that. Stay away from investing in the Philippines!
What about the next moment? Wouldn't that suck for a company to invest billions in infrastructure only to have it all pissed away when a senile old man changes his mind when he noticed he put his underwear on the backwards one morning? Less talk, more walk. Get some laws passed that protect investors.
If they reduce their prices he may relinquish his statement? Hang on, I thought he wanted to improve the internet speed. Reducing the price has nothing to do with the internet speed. The Philippines will never have decent internet but it may become cheaper,hooray.
Telecommunications Commission on the number of cell sites for the telecommunication companies in relation to the number of their subscribers or consumers. QUEZON CITY, Philipines — The House of Representatives has put on hold the franchise of 2 big telephone companies until their service improves. According to the House Committee on Metro Manila Development, consumers are not getting the service they deserve with the telcos. “Huwag muna natin sila bigyan ng mga franchise hangga’t hindi po nila naayos ang mga problema natin.” (Let’s not give them first their franchise until they have not solve our problems.) RELATED: Pres. Duterte warns telcos to fix its services Smart Communications has 65 million subscribers all over the country and has 12,000 cell sites while Globe Telecom has 64 million subscriber with more than 7,000 cell sites. According to the National Telecommunication Commission for every 1 thousand consumers there should be 1 cell site. It turns out that the number of cell sites that serve million of subscribers is not proportionate and this was admitted by Smart and Globe. Globe and Smart were also questioned about the slow internet service. Congress put on hold telco franchise