Best Posts in Thread: Vietnam (Hanoi) Mobile Internet Speeds

We don't need those speeds here. You can't buy a computer here that will handle them, and besides, what would you do? Upload 700 selfies to Facebook a day rather than 200? Plus the fact, a 20 peso prepaid load would last about 1/10th of a second. My wife is trying to get me to read a book. She says she reads but she really doesn't. She only looks at the words.
Seriously, I don't think the internet will get better anytime soon because of the usual factors that come into play here. Telstra from Australia also was making a deal to come in but it fell through due to corruption, collusion and greed. If you are not a member of one of the 40 families that own most of the country, then you are not likely to get in.

 

But when you look at other ASIAN Countries that can have such great speeds available to their citizens, it begs the question; "Why do the Filipino people simply accept getting screwed time and time again?"

I had assumed a country of 100,000,000 people would mean some of the best services in the world, especially after reading online how many text messages are sent each day here in the Philippines by Filipinos, Telstra would KILL for numbers like that back in Australia!!!

*Quote:
Today, surveys say about 400 million text messages are sent by Filipinos every day or 142 billion a year! No wonder the Philippines is known as the “texting capital of the world.” Texting is also cheaper than placing a call, so subscribers would rather fidget with their cell phone’s keypad than make a call. According to a country listing published by Wikipedia, there are more than 106 million cell phones being used in the Philippines. If at an average person owns two phones, then we’re talking about 50 million plus Filipinos texting every day!
400 Million Text Messages a Day in the Philippines

Actually if Telstra had managed to get their foot in the door I feel they would have behaved no differently to those who run the show here already, which is what I think frightened them the most as my dealings with them back in Oz it is my opinion they are a pack of assholes!

For those who are not up to speed regards what happened with Telstra trying to break into the Internet market here in the Philippines;

Why Telstra may have dodged a bullet in the Philippines​

by David Ramli

The failure of Telstra's joint-venture talks with Philippines food giant San Miguel is likely to be a Sliding Doors moment for the telco giant.

On the surface, it was a killer deal – Telstra would spend a relative pittance to roll out high-speed mobile broadband to the middle class of a rising Asian tiger.

The two existing players, Globe Telecom and PLDT, are a duopoly enjoying strong profit margins despite providing a relatively poor service.

But while the team led by Telstra International group executive Cynthia Whelan may wake up wondering how they could have executed it differently, there's a strong chance they dodged a bullet that could have sunk Telstra into a quagmire of bad press and more debt.

To Telstra chief executive Andy Penn's credit, the market opportunity is definitely there.

When Fairfax Media visited earlier this year on a three-week fact-finding tour, the need for better services was clear. Both Globe and PLDT offered wide coverage for low prices but this is largely limited to phone and text message services.

If you have a device with Google Maps, the GPS unit will easily find you. But this is useless because it cannot download a map without the internet, making your position a blip of blue amidst a sea of grey blurs.

Local teachers on one island have to rise at 5am to download resources; waiting another hour means facing unusable speeds as waking villagers switch on their phones.

And while the vast majority of Filipinos currently use prepaid services and communicate via text messages, many expressed a willingness to pay more on contracts if it meant getting decent internet connections.

Telstra was due to invest up to $US1 billion ($1.3 billion) to buy 40 per cent of the joint venture – the most allowed under foreign ownership laws in the Philippines.

The partnership with San Miguel would then borrow billions more from local banks to fund construction, which analysts have priced at up to $US3.5 billion over four years.

When combined with the mobile spectrum held by San Miguel, this would have created one of the fastest broadband services the Philippines has ever seen – potentially even faster than what Australians currently receive.
The obstacles

The Obstacles​

Two obvious hurdles for Telstra were the existing service providers, Globe and PLDT.

But the biggest threats were those that companies such as Telstra struggle to factor into their risk/reward matrix's.

Globe chief executive Ernest Chu and other local telco executives spoke of their plans for fighting Telstra – techniques that would make an Australian Competition and Consumer commissioner's head explode.

Stores that rely on the foot traffic and income generated by selling Globe and PLDT SIM cards would be banned if they dared to stock San Miguel's telco products.

Cell tower sites and back-haul would be locked up for use, preventing any sharing of resources – district governments lobbied against letting the new players in.

Court battles would rage throughout the land in an effort to stop San Miguel from using its spectrum assets, without which the broadband taps would cease to flow. PLDT had already begun lobbying the nation's president to forcibly redistribute the electronic resource and both incumbents were preparing for a price war.
Corruption widespread

Corruption Widespread​

And finally there's the elephant in the room – the widespread corruption in the Philippines.

Doing business on the archipelago is certainly getting better. But corruption remains a constant problem that has reached the highest levels of government.

Ironically, one of the biggest scandals in recent years involved the construction of a national broadband network in 2008 and accusations of interference by the husband of the country's then-president Gloria Arroyo.

About 15,000 protesters took to the streets in Makati City – not far from Telstra's Manila headquarters.

Telstra's last taste of working with corrupt businesses took place when it acquired a Chinese tech company named Octave Group that turned out to be a beneficiary of bribes paid to China Mobile officials by the previous owner.

Telstra never knew of the bribes and paid no kickbacks so revenue promptly fell off a cliff – $302 million was eventually written off.

There's no question that the phone and internet giant must find new avenues for profit growth.

Focusing on less sexy deals involving the acquisition of business-facing companies may well be the safer path forward.

But the fact that shareholders have pushed Telstra shares 2.33 per cent higher after the failure to finalise this opportunity shows that many were sceptical of the joint venture.

So when Mr Penn and his team look back at what may have been they should not assume the road less taken would have led to success.

Why Telstra may have dodged a bullet in the Philippines

 

Although it would be nice mate, last night I thought I would line up some movies and go to bed, woke up to 28x movies at 22Gb's, now looks like it will take me another few nights to get the rest in the queue dang it! hehe