Only 3 out of 10 Filipinos have access to Internet—report

[lastlid]

MANILA, Philippines–"The Internet remains inaccessible to seven out of 10 Filipinos, despite the country’s self-proclaimed status as the world’s center for social media, a new report by a United Nations (UN) agency showed.
The Broadband Commission for Digital Development in its latest report urged developing nations like the Philippines to take steps to encourage Internet usage, which has proven to be a significant contributor to economic growth.
A study done on the Philippines showed that broadband adoption contributes 0.32 percent of annual gross domestic product (GDP). “Given the importance of mobile in the economy of the Philippines, this would account for 6.9 percent of all GDP growth for the economy during the past decade,” the Broadband Commission said.
The findings on the Philippines, first reported by enterprise IT news site Newsbytes.ph, were published in the agency’s annual report made public on Sunday.
“Broadband is today a critical infrastructure in the growing global digital economy, and countries that fail to invest in broadband infrastructure risk being excluded from today’s online economy, as well as the next stage of the digital revolution and future Internet,” the report read."


http://technology.inquirer.net/17060...nternet-report

[MissAna]

that's strange you can find internet cafe's anywhere in the philippines

[lastlid]

that's strange you can find internet cafe's anywhere in the philippines

Yes. I thought it sounded a bit low.

[Dedworth]

The Broadband Commission for Digital Development is some sort of quasi UN organisation so they will be too busy with their snouts in the salary & expenses trough to realise that there are probably more internet cafes per head in the PI than any other country

[CBM]

It looks low for "access to Internet cafes" and very high for "broadband at home".

There may be some measure for how convenient it is to access an Internet cafe - if you live in the countryside and need to take a jeep to the nearest town to get access to a cybercafe it could be said that you don't enjoy convenient access.

[philphil61]

seems strange.. as others have pointed out... there's a netcafe on every corner

and then there is home internet offered by either cable (PLDT, Byantel etc) or usb dongle (Globe, Smart) too which none are reliable or speedy.

and during the day most family members wood spend at least 1hr online (some 4 or 5hrs)

the students would spend 5mins printing off their copied home study work then sign into facebook whilst watching youtube vids and playing Conquer or similar

married and unmarried, single and in-relationship, old and young filipina would sign into their dating sites or other and reply to or "show interest" others

I quote 3 simple words education education education

[fred]

There may be internet access on every corner of every street in most towns but many Filipinos tell me that 15 Pesos an hour is still too expensive for them.
High speed internet maybe available in Manila and Cebu but it is prohibitively expensive for most ..
Many malls have wifi but you will usually need to eat in somewhere like Macdo`s and get the password from staff. This is not much good if you dont own a laptop or an expensive wifi phone.
Out in the provinces we are mainly dependent on a wireless "broadband" signal although there are many many areas where the signal is only GSM and practically unusable for even browsing text.
These are the speeds that I have to put up with here out in the sticks..Im one of the lucky ones.. That said if I was a serious stock/share trader etc then I would have to live in Manila full time to get business done.. I think things will get better country wide eventually but not anytime soon.

[Arthur Little]

MANILA, Philippines–"The Internet remains inaccessible to seven out of 10 Filipinos, despite the country’s self-proclaimed status as the world’s center for social media ..."

Must admit ... at first glance, this statement was a bit of an eye-opener to me too, given - as others have said - the seemingly ubiquitous presence of internet cafes on virtually every street corner. Likewise, it appears "everyone and their grannies" use mobile phones in the Phils... in significantly proportionate contrast to the number of domestic landline installations.

But then again ... ... I take Fred's point about the many people living in the provinces dependency on substandard and/or makeshift "broadband" signals ... and for whom even these most basic facilities may be unaffordable.

[fred]

Check that out!!!
Im cooking on gas tonight!!

[lastlid]

Must admit ... at first glance, this statement was a bit of an eye-opener to me too, given - as others have said - the seemingly ubiquitous presence of internet cafes on virtually every street corner. Likewise, it appears "everyone and their grannies" use mobile phones in the Phils... in significantly proportionate contrast to the number of domestic landline installations.

But then again ... ... I take Fred's point about the many people living in the provinces dependency on substandard and/or makeshift "broadband" signals ... and for whom even these most basic facilities may be unaffordable.

Makes sense. Maybe there is a high uptake in Manila and other cities but less so in the remote areas.

[stevewool]

the problem i found using the internet cafes , my mind went blank and for the life of me i could not remember any passwords at all,silly but it happens all the time, and yes i do write them down now