Are telcos ready for class opening?

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

One of the country’s leading telecommunications companies (telco) said Friday that they have yet to determine how much internet data will be needed once schools around the country reopen and hold online learning on August 24, 2020.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has forced schools to close early and adjust to non-traditional modes of academic and non-academic activities.

In an interview with Aksyon Radyo Iloilo, Patrick Gloria, Globe Telecom’s Director for External Affairs, said that for the first quarter of the year (Q1) alone, data usage increased significantly by 41 percent.

These include both mobile data and data via wired services such as Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL).

He added that data is the heaviest consumer of cell sites compared to traditional voice calls and text messaging.

Lockdowns around the Philippines were implemented starting in mid-March, or towards the end of Q1.

“For Q1 of 2020, customers have become really data-heavy, with a 41 percent increase in data. Usually, the increase is only about 10, 20 or 30 percent, but 41 percent is already significant. Most of them are used in video conferencing, or maybe to entertain themselves by watching videos or movies. Data, when translated by telcos, that is the heaviest usage of cellsites. Voice and text use only a small amount, but video is very heavy,” Gloria said.

He said that they still do not have figures as to how much data will be needed for classes, as they do not know which schools will be using full-online modes, or the blended modular modes.

“It’s really the first time we will learn, on August 24, how great traffic is, and how much data should be fixed. We can’t estimate because we don’t know yet which schools will pursue modular learning and what schools will pursue online learning. There are a lot of schools. We still don’t have data but we will learn on August 24. It will be interesting to understand the behavior of our educational system because with everyone going online and getting their classes online, it will be definitely interesting to understand that,” he said.

Gloria also said that since people have been forced into their homes, they have also been shifting their transactions through online modes, further increasing internet usage.

“All businesses use the internet now. Especially since COVID-19 came, I think everyone had to shift to online, whatever they do in their everyday lives, and I think that will be the norm. All the industries, hotels, food, hospitals, banks all businesses will definitely have to shift online. Bank transactions, payments on loans, everyone would have to go online. People are scared to go out. Also, being responsible citizens, I think the best way is not to get yourself exposed to the public. So, the best way is to go online,” he said.

He said that Globe Telecom “will be okay”, but he worries that areas which are far from reach of cell sites, including those of their main rivals Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and Smart Communications, may not be able to avail of their services.

“In general, we can cope, but let’s face reality. There will be areas which we can’t really cover, and that’s the same with our friends in Smart and PLDT. They definitely share the same sentiments because they’re also continuing building. In the total industry, the reality is, we are really building as fast as we can, as many as we can, where we can. But there will be areas that we cannot cover. It’s basically now more of public service, making sure that our intent is to get as many people covered in our signal as fast as we can,” he said.

Gloria added that they have reached out to the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to work out solutions regarding the current issues.

“We are definitely reaching out to the schools and the DepEd and tell them about the realities that we’re facing, so that they understand where there are and where there aren’t and that can be relayed to the learners, so that the learner can also have a choice where they can connect. The most important thing here is to inform the teachers and learners so that they would know how to adjust. At the same time, we will also be making online classes for teachers on how to cope with school opening during this [COID-19] situation because we’re anticipating that,” he said.

 

4,000 USERS PER CELL SITE

Gloria explained that slow connections to the internet are caused by congestion in cell sites.

As an example, he added that Zoom, which has had an increased usage since the start of lockdowns around the world, uses two or three Megabits per second (Mbps) for stability.

Megabits are the units of measure for internet bandwidth, which is the download rate of an internet connection, or the maximum speed at which one can download data from the internet onto to a computer or mobile device.

“Most of us using cellphones use cellular data which comes from cell sites. The reality right now is that it will get congested, and there are some people who will fail to connect because of the congestion or if they do, the data will slowly run. For example, most people now use Zoom, which consumes about two or three Mbps for a normal working video call. So if you put a lot of people together using two or three Mbps, the cell site gets congested. Most of the congestion will be in cell sites because people are sharing airtime,” Gloria said.

He further compared the use of cell sites to highways to stress the need of more cell sites to address the problem of internet connectivity.

“It’s like a highway, wherein if you use a smaller vehicle, it will run faster. In our case, in the Philippines, highways are congested already and our vehicles run slow. That’s also the same way with telcos and cell sites, our cell sites are going full. There’s about 4,000 people sharing one cell site in the country, versus our Asian neighbors, where there about a thousand or 500 people sharing one cell site. There’s a big difference,” he said.

He said that they are addressing President Rodrigo Duterte’s concerns over slow internet connection in the country.

Globe, along with PLDT and Smart, were the subjects of the President’s ire during his fifth State of the Nation Address on July 27, 2020.

Duterte threatened that he will expropriate the assets of the telcos if they do not speed up connection by December, joking that he wanted to “talk to Jesus Christ in Bethlehem”.

“We will heed the President’s call to improve services. Ever since, that‘s what the President wants, what the people want, and that’s what we’ve always wanted, to make better, faster, first-world internet connectivity. The fact remains that there are definitely challenges in terms of building cell sites.

Gloria said that the problem lies in the acquisition of permits to build cell sites, which he added regularly takes up to eight months.

“As I’ve said earlier, our cell sites are small compared to the number of users. We need to build more cell sites to cover that. There are a lot of challenges in building cell sites. Number one is support from the governments, barangay, local governments, and the national government, in terms of permitting. The reality is, for one cell site, you will need twenty-five permits and eight months to acquire those permits. If you have no issues, the normal is eight months, but if you do have issues, it takes longer,” he said.

He said that Globe Telecom has already earmarked $1.2 billion for infrastructure to build new cell sites and cabinets for wired services.