Who wants great 3G Service on a Remote Island?

By Jerome Auza

In the past weeks I’ve discussed what I think is the reason for poor Internet service in the country. However, this weekend, I was pleasantly surprised to be on a remote sandbar somewhere off Bien Unido, Bohol and my phone had consistent 3G signal and fast Internet service. So I posted a panorama picture of the island.

For sure, we were at least a few kilometers away from the nearest cell site as it took 30 minutes by banca to reach the sandbar. The banca, by the way, was a twin engine model which means it was double the noise of regular bancas. And it was faster.

So why the fast connection out there? There were actually some factors that favor a good connection. First, I can see a few cell site towers at the main land which means there were no obstruction between my cellphone and the cell site it connected to. Compare this with the situation when you are in Tagbilaran City where the cell site could be just a few hundred meters away but there are a lot of obstructions like buildings and trees.

Second, I presume there aren’t that many users in that area thus the cell site is not as congested as it could get if it was in an area with a high density of users.

Lastly, my impression was just based on an hour there and only occasionally using Facebook and checking email. I know, I shouldn’t have checked email because I was on an outing but I had to test the connection.

If such connection is consistent, then I would say there is really some level of capability of doing outsourced services there. If the outsourced service does not require real-time interaction, it might just work.