2M broadband subscribers by yearend

The number of broadband users in the country is expected to reach the two-million mark by the end of the year, Catanduanes Representative Joseph Santiago said in a statement Sunday.

As of June 30, 2009, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. reported 1.2 million in combined broadband subscribers, while rival Globe Telecom Inc. reported 379,309 broadband users, said the chairman of the House committee on information and communications technology.

Santiago thus urged broadband service providers "to truthfully declare the true speeds of their Internet access services" and to avoid misleading advertisements in their bid to seize market share.

He cautioned service providers against "exaggerating" the speeds of their broadband offerings.

"They should be able to deliver minimum Internet connectivity at par with, if not superior to their advertised speeds," said Santiago, also former chief of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

"It would be totally unfair, even highly deceptive, for them to aggressively promote their services by assuring this or that Internet access speed, only to fall short of their promise," Santiago said.

He said the NTC should see to it that consumers, including small businesses, are not being shortchanged by service providers, who should be able to guarantee a minimum Internet access speed all the time, regardless of the technology used.

Internet access speed is measured in data transfer rate, expressed in bits of data per second, or bps, from the web to a computer. Thus, Mbps stands for millions of bits per second or megabits per second.

At present, broadband service providers offer Internet access speeds of 1Mbps to 2Mbps (one million to two million bits per second) to individual subscribers, with others vowing faster speeds in return for more pricey monthly plans, particularly for corporate users or small shops.

As the name implies, broadband offers greater bandwidth (faster data transfer rate) over a telecommunications medium compared to a dial-up Internet connection.

In general, a high bandwidth Internet connection is one that is able to carry enough information to sustain the succession of images in a video presentation.

In other countries, Santiago said regulators have gone to the extent of establishing a minimum broadband standard, equal to a constant data transfer rate of at least 2Mbps. "So only those able to deliver the minimum access speed may call their service broadband," he pointed out.

Besides PLDT, Smart, and Globe, the other service providers actively enlisting broadband subscribers are Bayan Telecommunications Inc. and Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc.

PLDT posts P20.8 billion profit in 6 months

Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) posted a consolidated core net income of P20.8 billion ($433 million), up 11 percent on year, in the first six months 2009, on back of increased revenues, company officials said today.

PLDT's consolidated net income grew 2 percent to P19.7 billion (about $410 million) in the first half of 2009.

PLDT officials reported that consolidated service revenues rose 4 percent on year to P72.9 billion (about $1.5 billion).

Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) are stable at P44.1 billion (about $920 million) while consolidated EBITDA margin is at 60 percent of service revenues. Consolidated free cash flow improves to P31.6 billion (about $660 million) for the first half of 2009.

The strong performance of the wireless service unit bolstered PLDT's revenues in the first half. Wireless service revenues increased five percent to P48.1 billion (about $1 billion) thanks to an expanding customer base.

PLDT's cellular subsidiaries, Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) and Pilipino Telephone Corporation (Piltel) continue to dominate the market, thanks to aggressive marketing, continuous system improvement and offering of more affordable rates to its subscribers. The subscriber base for the first half of 2009 expanded by 16 percent to P38.5 million.

"We are very conscious of the need to adapt our service offerings to the needs of our subscribers and the economic conditions. We offer the best value at the lowest price," Napoleon Nazareno, President and CEO of PLDT and Smart, said in a statement.

SmartBro, the Smart's wireless broadband service -- through its wholly-owned subsidiary Smart Broadband, Inc. -- continued to expand as its wireless broadband subscriber base grew 26 percent to 689,000.

Wireless broadband revenues grew 30 percent to P2.6 billion (about $54 million) in the first half of 2009.

Fixed-line service revenues increased by 3 percent to P25.4 billion (about $530 million) on significant gains in data revenues, both from corporate data and residential services. E-PLDT, the group's information and communications technology arm, reported service revenues of P5.2 billion (about $108 million) in the first half of 2009, up 5 percent on year.

"While our first half performance remained robust, we are slightly concerned about what the second semester may bring the third quarter is traditionally the slowest one in the year and we worry that the adverse effects of the global economic crisis may have a lagged effect on our economy," PLDT Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said in a statement.

Despite these concerns, Pangilinan is optimistic that PLDT will continue to perform strongly for the rest of the year. He expects PLDT to post a core profit of P41 billion (about $854 million) for 2009.

"We are seeing some signs that consumers generally may be wary about spending or committing to spend. Nonetheless, I remain confident that we are up to the challenge. We have faced tough times before and come out a stronger and better company," he said.

Post Twitter status via SMS - the right way

Last year around September, Globe Telecoms launched their Twitter service in the Philippines as response to Twitter's blocking of their UK number from sending updates to people outside of the United States, Canada or India.

The thing is, the Globe Twitter service costs Php2.5o per text message sent or received. You get the first three personal updates for free, then 2.50 after that. You can imagine how expensive this can add up to at the end of the day.

With the coming of the iPhone and other Wi-Fi enabled phones to us, posting updates over Twitter Mobile became more popular. Rather than going through SMS, people simply log onto the Web service and do their micro-blogging from there. Or they might get Twitter apps that work on their phones/smartphones.

But what about the rest of us without Wi-Fi phones or smartphones? Well, there's recently been good buzz about a service called "I Speak over Internet Protocol". It's not actually a protocol, just some marketing gimmick I guess? But the point is that registering with them will enable you to send updates via SMS to Twitter for P1.00 per update, or at no additional cost if you're on the Unlimited Text offering of your carrier.

Here's how it works.

You register with Isip.ph. Then they ask you for your Twitter username and password. Then they give you a mobile number that you can send your updates to. And voila. You get to update your Twitter status via SMS.

What happens behind this is that when you register and give Isip.ph your Twitter username and password, they will post the messages you send them via the number they gave you. You text your update to Isip.ph, they read the message, then copy that message to your Twitter status.

Technically, it's a workaround. I don't see how this won't work though. It's a great service since Isip.ph doesn't actually charge you for this. If you get charged, it's done by your carrier (Smart, Globe, Sun Cellular).

One shortcoming though is that you still don't get SMS updates from Twitter via Isip.ph. I guess you really need to go with Globe for that. I'll post about this other Globe offer later, if I can.