President Rodrigo Duterte gave the telecommunications company a time limit until December to fix their service.
In his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Duterte mentioned the two biggest telecommunication companies in the Philippines, Globe, and Smart, saying that he’s already living in the country for a long time, but the service of the two giants didn’t change.
He warned the two telecom companies to comply on his order or else he would make a way to close them.
“Ang Smart pati Globe, ilang taon na ito? At ang sagot palagi sa akin, ‘cannot be reached’. Saan napunta ‘yong yawa na ‘yon?If you are not ready to improve, I might just as well close all of you. We’ll revert back to line,” said Duterte.
“The patience of the Filipino people is reaching its limit and I will be the one to articulate the anger of the Filipino people… Kindly improve the services before December… I want to call Jesus Christ to Bethlehem, better have that line cleared. Kayo ang may pera, p**** tapos you give us half-cooked deals, lousy service,” he added.
As a response, Globe CEO Ernest Cu said that they’re doing their best to improve their service, citing that they spent $1.2-B which goes to network and capacity builds.
Cu also mentioned the challenges they’re facing especially the long process of building cell sites.
“We have been experiencing long-drawn permitting process across LGUs, HOAs, and national agencies in our cell site build and laying down of fiber to homes, but we are positive that with the policies being enacted by the DICT, we will be able to fast-track builds of telco towers for a more robust connectivity and internet services for every Filipino,” said Cu.
Filipinos repeatedly complained about the slow internet service in the country.
However, the telecom companies vowed to do what they could to improve their services to the people.
According to the Ookla Speedtest Global Index for February 2019, the Philippine internet speed showed an improvement of 143.74%.