Lack of crucial cell sites blamed for poor mobile network quality

Poor mobile service quality explained at the Philippine Telecoms Summit 2017,

Telco giants PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom said a key reason for poor mobile network quality was the lack of crucial cell sites, a situation hobbled by bureaucratic red tape on releasing permits and uncooperative gated villages.

At Thursday’s Philippine Telecoms Summit 2017, Globe chief technology officer Gil Genio said it was the country’s “national shame” that PLDT and Globe had a combined cell site footprint of 16,300 sites while neighbors like Vietnam and Indonesia had 70,000 sites and 86,000 sites, respectively.

Japan, which has some of the best internet quality in the region, has 220,000 sites.

“You cannot have good quality if you don’t have good coverage,” Joachim Horn, PLDT chief technology officer, said during the summit.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is set to unveil a draft executive order Friday that would order local government units to release cell site permits within one week, versus the current standard of several months.

Another big challenge was convincing the homeowners’ associations of upscale neighborhoods to allow the telcos to install cell sites within their communities. The underlying fear was that radiation emitted from these facilities could cause chronic illnesses, such as cancer. The telcos argued this myth has since been debunked by modern science.

Globe on Thursday released a list of villages that have barred or limited its entry:

• La Vista
• Forbes
• Dasmariñas
• TSCRUZ Subdivision
• Fruitville HOA
• Bf homes HOA
• Merville subd Home Owners Association (HOA)
• Bf homes Executive Village Association
• Merville Subdivision HOA
• South Bay Garden Village
• JEE Village Association
• Vista Verde Subdivision
• Concepcion Village
• Modesta Village
• Vista Verde Subdivision Loyola Grand Villas
• 1st Valle Verde Asso. Inc. (Valle Verde 1)
• Jaybee Village
• St. Mary’s Subdivision
• Vista Real Classica Subdivision
• Meteor Home Owners Association
• Loyola Grand Villas
• Kings’ Vill Executive Village
• Smile CitiHomes Condominium Corp.
• Thomas Home Association
• Vista Rio Village
• Magallanes Village
• Greenmeadows Village
• Greenhills North
• Belair Village