A TOP official of the PLDT Inc. Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Nation vowed to come up with more affordable and flexible Internet connection rates to help small businesses flourish.
Mitch Locsin, PLDT vice president and head of PLDT SME Nation, said this is their way of heeding the Duterte administration’s call to boost development in rural areas through entrepreneurship.
“We don’t have a new package yet but we will definitely introduce new ones in the coming months that are more affordable at the current rate we have now,” said Locsin, in an interview yesterday.
He said PLDT’s corporate social responsibility thrust is to help micro and medium sized businesses to grow in their respective industries, encourage more enterprises to utilize technology and prepare them to go global in the future.
President Duterte’s 10-point socio-economic agenda is centered on investing in rural areas.
In his first State Of the Nation Address last Monday, President Duterte vowed to pursue tax reforms towards a simpler, and more equitable, and more efficient tax system that can foster investment and job creation as well as reforms to ensure competitiveness and promote ease of doing business.
He also pledged to roll out faster and free Internet access in most public areas and develop a National Broadband Plan to accelerate the deployment of fiber optics cables and wireless technologies to improve Internet speed.
According to Locsin, PLDT has allotted resources to update the telecommunications industry. He said it might take a year or two before the country can feel the effects of the transformation.
He admitted that telcos in general were unable to catch up with the rapid shift of technology, from merely talk and text capable infrastructure to data capable platforms.
“The transformation will not come overnight, more so that the upgrade of infrastructure is capital extensive,” he said. However, Locsin said efforts are in place to make the Internet service in the country better.
PLDT Inc. and its competitor Globe Telecom Inc. recently signed a bilateral IP peering arrangement to improve local Internet traffic quality and provide better Internet experience for the subscribers of both telco operators.
With the peering arrangement, PLDT and Globe will now allow direct local exchange of traffic between PLDT’s Philippine Internet Exchange (PhIX) and Globe Internet Exchange (GIX) to each other’s own broadband and mobile customers.
The bilateral domestic peering will cover PLDT-managed networks such as Smart, Sun and Digitel and the Globe networks that include Globe mobile, Bayantel, Ayalaport and Globe data center.