The foreign and local oligarchs controlling the virtual telecom monopoly in the country — made up of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Globe Telecom — probably would have sleepless nights after President Duterte warned them the other day that if they don’t improve their services, they’ll bring in competitors from China. The world’s biggest telecom firm now, after overtaking the American Verizon last year, is China Mobile Ltd., while the tenth largest is China Telecom. Not only that, it’s a fantastic business proposal for Chinese telecom firms: with our 100-million population, we’re a coveted market, being the 12th largest market for cellphones in the world. Sources claimed that the telecom oligarchs’ attempts, through various third parties, to have an audience with Duterte have been rebuffed, in stark contrast to their first-name-basis relationship with Aquino. We have the second lowest average internet speed in Asia-Pacific, according to the latest first-quarter 2016 report of the Massachusetts-based Akamai Technologies, a leader in the internet industry (see table).

Source: Manila Times October 09, 2016 17:03 UTC