Portents and Prospects for Mobile Telephone Service: A 3G Philippine Experience

Philippine telecommunications has always been an adjunct of the transportation sector. Historically, the essential infrastructure for an archipelago like the Philippines was road construction and highways; communications assumed the back seat. Regulation – thus, the impetus – came from then Ministry of Transportation and Communications (1981-1986) later on, and all the way to the present, the Department of Transportation and Communications. The Martial Law years (1972-1986) gave undue advantage to the sector’s market players who were identified with the political dispensation at that time. This stifled growth. While the surrounding Southeast Asian regional economies were already riding on the telecommunications highway, the Philippines only had one international gateway facility to speak off. The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) was the only phone company with the network and resources at that time. The small, rural companies were regarded as community intercom services unable to connect with other areas without passing through the PLDT network. To characterize this pathetic state, former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew was said to have remarked “…Ninety percent of the Philippine population was waiting for a telephone line while the other ten percent with phones were waiting for a dial tone.” But all these changed almost overnight when ‘people power’ swept the political landscape.