The Philippines known for its colorful historical past. We are a country known as the small Latin America in South-East Asia. The Spanish Colonial gave the Philippines, a piece of Europe with Asian culture, art and infrastructure with local flavor. At the turn of the century, the Philippines again had a new colonial master. The Americans, who improved our infrastructure and Technology. We can’t deny that since 1928 the Philippines had its own Telecom infrastructure the Wireline Telephone System (land line). This was courtesy of GTE (General Telephone Electronics Corporation) the fore father of PLDT. Early on, our fascination with technology was ignited by telecommunication facilities. However, this technology advancement does not favor the whole population but rather those who can afford and are in power of government. Most of all, in business definition it was a huge monopoly.

This standard patterned after the American Operators like Bell Telecoms and AT&T.
The millennials might ask when did PLDT began to operate? Why is it that our yellow pages still have the GTE name on it? Well to answer that question the yellow pages, is a compilation of telephone listings of some residential and most companies in the Philippines. It’s also a form of advertisement in print, before the digital age. However, not all residential phone numbers were listed for privacy purposes. This was part of the services which GTE has managed to grow the telecom business here in the Philippines. Their campaign was get a phone and we will help you market your company thru the yellow pages. PLDT incorporated in 1968, formed a Philippine corporation (made up of Filipino incorporators) to take over our American founders and leaders.

We have been using the Landline facility since 1926. The year 1987 a big leap made by PLDT into the wireless communications arena. The birth of Mobile Communication, this was Piltel (Pilipino Telecom Corp.) their new subsidiary. In 1988, a new telecom company made a new statement on the mobile arena. It was Express Telecom or Extelcom, they challenged Piltel on the Mobile business. Both Piltel and Extelcom are analogue based operators or first- generation systems (1G). They use AMPS (Advance Mobile Phone System) technology and gave their subscribers the ability to make phone calls outside or on the road. This gave Filipinos the glimpse of how technology can expand, innovate over the wireless divide. Piltel give its service in 1991 to most areas in Metro Manila, like Extelcom. When the government held its first free election in 1992 after the EDSA revolution of 1986. The Philippines and its Telecommunication industry headed to new grounds.

It was made possible by the Ramos Administration by Republic Act 7925. The Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines. With this act, our telecommunications facilities expanded on terms of numbers of players in the industry. As mentioned earlier, the state of the telecommunication services in the Philippines was only with few companies. In this manner, the roll-out of both landlines and mobile facilities were so slow. The Ramos administration made it a point to rapidly, increase the facilities which means more facilities to be built and create jobs for Filipinos. The year was 1995, when this historic law was signed and implemented. This law in placed, we saw new players which would shape our existing telecommunication facilities today. We saw the rise of Globe Telecom, formerly Globe McKay. Smart Telecommunications, Isla Communications, Bayantel, ICC. Revitalized telco service companies such as ETPI, RCPI, PT&T paging corporations such as Pocketbell and Easy Call.

These new companies Globe, Smart, Isla Com, Bayantel were given the mandate to provide the following:

1. Landlines (Regional Service per Operator).
2. International Gate Way facility.
3. Cellular Mobile Networks (Nationwide Roll-out).

They were given specific 3 to 5 years to complete the project roll-out to meet the demands of the growing Philippine Telecom business. The impact was tremendous growth and job creation for the nation. Graduates of Electronics and Communication Engineering, the initial batch of Computer Engineers and Information Technology were put into the spot light. It started the Cell site trend, antennas on buildings and more towers in the country side. Truly growth from the telecom sector has begun and has not stop since 1995. We started to make calls outside the house, inside the car and outdoors. Freedom to move, understanding the value of mobility. Still, not all Filipinos can experience these services due to the following problems encountered.

1. Limited Coverage of the Cellular Network — Roll-Out takes time in all areas.
2. Capacity and Quality of the Network — Subscribers are growing, the need for more sites or radio expansion. Voice quality degraded due to more users and still illegal users on the frequency bands allocated by the NTC (National Telecommunications Commission).
3. Growing Fraud or security problems from analogue systems are reaching high levels.

All technological advancement does not come without problems. It will always have challenges for improvement and development. This was the reality with the analogue system. The security of the transmission over the air is easily tapped. There is readily available equipment in the market which can do this as the technology has been around since 1945. These instruments used for espionage in countries like Europe and the United States.

The new players continue to Roll-Out their network. They discover both the good side and challenges or birth pains in doing this monumental task. But one thing is clear, they have good business in Wireless Telecommunication. My next Blog series we will see the development from Analogue to Digital Cellular Systems of our networks in the Philippines.

Disclaimer: This Blog is the product of the authors 20 years’ experience in the Cellular Telecommunications in the Philippines. This does not have any relation or thoughts with my current, former and future employers. This includes my customers in all my years in Telecoms in the Philippines. All ideas are mine by way of experience. References are found in Wikipedia and corporate websites in the internet which are for public use and viewing.