Internet services will no longer be about Smart and Globe as Converge ICT Solutions Inc., a telecommunication and cable television service provider, is set to enter Davao City and General Santos City next year.
Antonio Peralta, chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines-Southern Mindanao Business Council (ECCP-SMBC), said Converge will set up its submarine cable initially in Gen. Santos City followed by Davao City.
He said the hub in Davao City will serve the entire Davao Region.
“But all of that will happen between the first and second quarter of 2021. This will immediately provide us with an option on our internet requirements,” Peralta said.
Peralta said based on statements made by Converge in an online conference entitled “Internet Connectivity: Readiness to the New Normal”, the company will provide internet services to MSMEs and residential communities and it will provide fixed broadband service.
Considered the country’s first pure end-to-end fiber internet provider, Converge has doubled its bandwidth to the government-managed internet exchange, PHOpenIX, that aims to optimize internet usage in the country.
PHOpenIX, is operated by the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), mandated to lead the research and development of technology solutions to modernize Information and Communications Technology and microelectronics in the country.
“Focusing on maximizing internet usage in the country, Converge ICT doubled its bandwidth to PHOpenIX, which is the only available and neutral Internet Exchange locally that allows the internet traffic exchange in a free-market situation among local internet and data service carriers. They have very good reviews from their subscribers in Metro Manila and other provinces. The company has been around for a while now and has been laying cables in Luzon and now in the Visayas, then here in Davao next year,” Peralta said.
Peralta said the entry of Converge will have an impact on the competitiveness of doing business in Davao City. He said ECCP-SMBC always look at other means to improve the business climate for the members and the communities the group is serving.
“We continually look at business concerns that can have a negative impact on their operations as such and from the earlier information provided on our technological readiness, we are quite behind,” he said.
The ECCP-SMBC, in partnership with its Information Communication Technology Committee, ANZCHAM- Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce Phils., Inc., British Chamber of Commerce Philippines, German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc., French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Philippines, Spanish Chamber of Commerce in The Philippines – La Cámara, and Nordic Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, organized the said online conference with speakers from local telecommunication companies and the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) last August 28, 2020.
Discussed during the conference are the current programs and plans in improving the accessibility, affordability and quality of internet services in the Philippines as well as the urgency of addressing the present internet connectivity issue for business considering that the country’s technological readiness score is near the bottom end.
