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| .ph Philippines |
Overview The Philippines continues its transformation into a knowledge-based economy with significant policy and regulatory developments. A new Commission on Information and Communications Technology was established in January 2004, and a new Optical Media Law that adds teeth to the effort to combat digital piracy came into force in February 2004. In addition, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the regulatory body for the telecommunications and broadcast industries in the Philippines, has issued rules for WiFi, VoIP, and cellular phone number portability. It has got involved too in the administration of the ".ph" domain name. Significantly, the courts have also weighed in on ICT regulation with their rulings on telephone billings and a domain name dispute. The government, as the single biggest ICT consumer, continues to move forward with its e-government efforts. Notable are its mobile government initiatives, an e-government fund and continuing progress of government agency websites. The mobile phone industry remains the shining star of the Philippine ICT sector. Competition, innovation and the continuing Filipino love affair with the cellular phone have pushed mobile phone ownership to more than 25 percent of the population -- six times higher than wired phone penetration. Industries The Philippines is proof that competition in the telecom-munications sector leads to better and innovative services at lower costs. Before competition was introduced in the country in 1993, telecommunications services were the pits. In 1990, the Department of Transportation and Communication announced the National Telecommunications Development Plan 1991 - 2010, which targeted a teledensity of 2.4 by the year 2000 and 3.5 by 2010. But by 1998, a mere five years after the introduction of competition, the targets were surpassed. Today, teledensity is at 10. In fact, currently there are more telephone lines than there are subscribers. Even more impressive is the effect of a liberalised and competitive telecommunications market on the uptake of cellular phone services. The Philippines is among the countries with more cellular phones than fixed/wired phones. And this is not simply due to the deterioration of fixed/wired phone services. Between 1999 and 2002, the number of fixed/wired phones increased by 446,491, making the Philippines the ninth best performer in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of the absolute number of new lines for the period. However, in the same period, cellular phone subscribers increased by 11,366,250! This made the Philippines the fifth best in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of the absolute number of new cellular subscribers and seventh best in terms of percentage increase (at 399 percent). At the end of 2003, there were close to 22 million mobile phone subscribers. Cellular phone services in the Philippines started in 1991 using analogue technologies. But analogue’s dominance did not last. Problems related to cloning and poor billing by service providers boosted the shift to 2G. By 1999, GSM was already the new standard in the market. The shift to digital technology, the brutal competition for market share, and the 1997 financial crisis led to consolidation in the cellular marketplace. The five original cellular providers have been reduced to two: Smart Communications, which had 54 percent of the market by 2003, and Globe Telecommunications, which had 46 percent. In the middle of 2003, a new cellular phone provider, Sun Cellular, entered the fray offering lower-priced SMS and voice services. Because of the intense competition for subscribers, the mobile service providers continue to extend their reach by opening new cell sites in remote areas. Smart claims that its 4,000 cell sites provide coverage to 80 percent of the entire archipelago.3 The providers have also been upgrading their networks with EDGE technology. Smart has announced that . . . . . the complete text of this chapter is available for purchase and immediate download as a PDF file, please click here for more information. |
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2003/2004 edition 
2005/2006 edition