Who wants great 3G Service on a Remote Island?

by admin | Sep 19, 2015 | Tech Talk

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.

Makaina islet/sandbar off the coast of Bien Unido, Bohol.

Internet Service: Do You Need Reliability or Bandwidth?

by admin | Sep 5, 2015 | Tech Talk

By: Jerome Auza

Discussions with the “slow” Internet speeds in the country would immediately make some people curse at our telco operators.  “My connection is slow!”, “I’d be lucky if I can open my favorite website during peak hours.”, “The modem keeps disconnecting.”, “Speed test is only a few KBPS.”

But what do we really need?  More bandwidth or better reliability of service?

Unfortunately for most of us, our service contracts with the telcos state “Minimum of 10% of subscribed speed at 80% reliability where available”.  So you could be paying for 2MBPS but the commitment of the telco is only 200kbps.  And you are signing a contract where it is okay that your connection is down one day a week or 4 hours a day or one minute every five minutes.

I had an opportunity to point this matter to Sen. “Bam” Aquino who was in Bohol on September 4, 2015 to open the Negosyo Center inside the Bohol Investment Promotions Center office at the Provincial Capitol.  During his breakfast meeting with the Bohol Chamber of Commerce and Industry, I asserted that 80% reliability is not enough.  And given we only have two telcos, even if you subscribe to both providers, at 80% reliability each, there is still a significant chance that both providers would be down in a given period.

Is the problem bandwidth or reliability?  My take on this is that the main problem is reliability.  Take for example one of my work requirements which is to connect via SSH to a remote server in the US.  When I’m using 3G or LTE service and I’m idle for about a minute, the connection would terminate.  When I do the speed test, I get 6MBPS.  So why is my SSH session disconnected frequently?

On a trip to Taiwan last year, I needed to connect to the US server remotely while we were traveling from Taipei to Hsinchu, about 100kms away.  Using 3G service from one of the Taiwanese telcos, we traveled the entire distance without a single disconnect.  If you think about it, I have been handed over to several cell sites as we traveled but the remote connection wasn’t disconnected even once.  When I did the speed test, I got about 4MBPS.

So why is it that in the Philippines with my 3G service showing more “speed”, it feels much slower than in Taiwan which as slower “speed”?

The answer is reliability.  Because the service there was much more reliable, I am able to open pages much quicker and I don’t have to reconnect again and again to complete the work I have to do.  Websites load much quicker if the browser doesn’t have to repeat requests frequently.

How do we compare in terms of reliability commitments by telcos in other countries?  I’ll try to answer this question in a coming article.  I already got a copy of a service contract from a UK company and they are offering at least 99% reliability.  If you have a copy of service contracts of providers in other countries, please give me a link or a copy to <a mailto:info@auza.net>info@auza.net</a>.

PH Unveils Digital Startup Roadmap in GOAB3

by admin | Aug 29, 2015 | Tech Talk

The Philippine Roadmap for Digital Startups was unveiled in the recently concluded Geeks on a Beach International Conference on August 20-21, 2015 in Boracay, Philippines. The development of the roadmap was led by DOST-ICTO Program Director Mon Ibrahim with contributions from the key players from different private businesses and fund management organizations.

The startup scene in the Philippines has recently become very active with Startup Weekend events happening in key cities around the country and successful tech events like Geeks on a Beach. There are also Techtalk events that are smaller in size and mostly informal meetups of tech enthusiasts. There is also influx of venture capitalists from outside the country interested in funding startups based in the Philippines.

Accelerator programs sponsored by PLDT and Globe, among others, have successfully produced viable startups. One example of such success is SALT, an invention that uses salt and water to produce enough electricity to power a small lamp and charge mobile devices.

The conclusion of the document summarizes the goals of the roadmap:
“The focus is to produce innovative businesses that find solutions to our country’s most inherent challenges. The roadmap is a collective effort for the community by the community, which includes the government, tech startup participants, and the academe, to come up with appropriate programs for the Philippines, focusing on the country’s unique factors/features. The purpose is to provide support on all stages of development for tech startups and entrepreneurs of different backgrounds to flourish.”

Facebook hits 1 Billion Users Logged in 24 hours

by admin | Aug 29, 2015 | Tech Talk

On Monday, August 24, 2015, Facebook hit one billion users logged within a 24 hour period. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement along with their new experiment called M, Facebook’s equivalent of Siri, the famous digital personal assistant on Apple devices.

This one billion milestone is indeed a breakthrough by a company that changed how the world look at relationships. Facebook has also changed how we view privacy and this matter has remained controversial and users have to find the right balance between getting in touch and up to date with relatives and friends without revealing too much information that may be used by malicious persons.

On a technical note, delivering a free service to a billion people in 24 hours requires computing and storage resources that are obviously massive. So how does Facebook earn money to pay for all these resources and manpower required to run this free service? Most of it is in advertising.

One should realize that the users of Facebook are its product. The personal profile users provide in Facebook is a treasure trove for marketing people. Facebook can deliver ads targeted to a certain profile of users and thus have a high likelihood of success. For example, an advertisement for wedding services can be shown to women who are engaged. Whether this is a bad or a good thing it is main up to the user to decide.