By
Helen A. Jimenez, Senior Reporter
Business World Online, December 10, 2001
Ever
since the Internet boom in the Philippines in the mid-nineties, Internet
service providers (ISPs) in the country felt they had to play a tough
game of survival.
Competing
for a market with low telephone density and PC penetration was already
a difficult challenge in itself. As value-added service (VAS) providers,
ISPs also had to shoulder the high cost of bandwidth and telecommunication
to be able to provide their subscribers fast and reliable Internet access.
The
dot-com mania gave the struggling ISP industry only short-lived hope as
most Internet start-ups went kaput even before they took off. Now, aside
from the high cost of communication access, the ISPs are also faced with
tough competition from telecommunications companies that are aggressively
expanding their traditional voice communication services to venture into
other data and Internet-related communication businesses.
According
to data cited by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) at the
International Telecommunications Union's (ITU) workshop on the Internet
in Southeast Asia held in Bangkok, Thailand last November 21-23, there
are 200 registered ISPs in the country this year that serve a total of
800,000 subscribers, or approximately 4 million users.
NTC
also reported that there are about 3,000 Internet cafés in the
country and that cost of Internet service ranges from a minimum of US$0.19
per hour and a maximum of US$1.73 per hour.
The
commission noted Internet penetration in the country remains low as some
50% of the 1,500 municipalities in the country do not yet have Internet
connectivity. Among the reasons it cited include the low PC penetration
due to high cost of PCs, high cost of Internet access rates and the lack
of telephones in many areas.
Some
members of the Philippine Internet Service Organization (PISO), however,
estimate that the surviving ISPs are now down to 60-70, maybe even 50.
Some of the ISPs have ceased to operate, merged with other ISPs, or simply
pursued another business.