So-so service

By Egay Uy 

QUITE a good number, many in fact, have posted complaints on Facebook about how slow their internet connections are. This is true even for those who are connected via fiber optics, the supposed faster alternative.

I recall some time last year when one telecommunications company requested for a resolution from the city council for it to be able to construct more cell sites in the city.  I believe the city council eventually granted that.

However, in some of the meetings of the committee handling the request, it was noted by some that the signal of telcos had been wanting, in that phone signals got lost, that internet speed crawled.

I commented then that if the request were granted, the telco should be made to commit to a certain level of signal strength or internet speed as its contract to the public. If its main justification for putting up more cell sites was to improve its services to its subscribers, then it should commit to an acceptable level of service.

I do not know if this was required by the city council.  But then again, telecommunications companies should be required to level up in terms of providing the right level of service to its subscribers.  It is after all a contractual obligation the compliance with which should be demandable.

I have not read the details of the coming in of a third telco whose franchise was reportedly already approved by Congress.  But then, it may be welcome note because if its services will be much better than those of the established telcos, then the consumer, the subscribers, will now have a meaningful exercise of their right to choose.

I find it rather odd that only the conditions of the telcos get considered.  They should be required to commit to the public and their subscribers that certain level of service as their contractual obligation to the general public.  Remember that we sign with telcos their prepared contracts of adhesion and their fine prints.

If we check on the number of subscribers these telcos have in their books, and multiply that number by the cost that subscribers pay, the product may be unimaginable to most of us.

That is how much they rake in from us, the subscribers, and yet they provide us with so-so kind of service.

(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He is the chairman of the city’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, chairman of the city’s Joint Inspection Team, and co-chairman of the City Price Coordinating Council.  He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)