Ep: 244: What Internet Options Exist In The Philippines

Welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing podcast that's dedicated to making you better at working with OFS online. Filipino specialists. This is episode 244. What Internet options exist in the Philippines? I'm going to read this to you today because this is super interesting. One of my OFS wrote this and sent it to me and this is really awesome and it's really kind of eye opening. So here we go. In the Philippines, there are three types of Internet connections. Fiber, which includes vdsl, FTTH and cable broadband. Now, I don't know what those things mean. I mean, I'm gonna interject a bunch of times here. I don't know what those things mean. Vdsl, vth, I don't really care. That's fiber Internet. Next cable service line, which is DSL, currently being phased out by fiber. And then third, wireless broadband using mobile networks 3G, 4G and 5G. So in the U.S. we have the same kind of Internet. Maybe you have it from the phone service, maybe you have it from the cable provider. Then we also all have our phones. He continues. When working from home, land based connections like fiber and DSL are preferable. They're more stable, faster and provide more value. Unfortunately, the fiber and DSL connection for some areas is limited. In our neighborhood, for example, we had a limited number of fiber connections allocated for our area. You have to apply early if you want to get one. The rest have to settle for wireless Internet. Really interesting. Just kind of how things work. Like when they set this up in the Philippines, they say, oh well, there's going to be 100 homes here. We're going to provide 16 connections. I don't know why. You know, the Philippines just works differently than it does here in the U.S. he continues. Or they'd have to wait for someone to end or cancel their subscription or wait for more lines to be made available. But since the pandemic, more fiber lines have been built all over the country. It is somewhat easier to get a land based connection now, but it still depends on where you live. It's easier if you live in the major metropolitan areas and harder in the provinces, which just so people know. Typically people workers on onlinejobs ph are less expensive in the provinces if you live in a major metropolitan area. If you live in Cebu or Manila, you know, it's just more expensive there. For those who can't get DSL or fiber Internet, wireless broadband is available everywhere. As long as there's a cellular connection. Most of us use wireless Internet as our backup Internet. When the Land based network is down. We can can buy this anywhere from convenience stores to malls. You have the option of getting a data only SIM card and using your phone as a router or getting a wireless Internet router like this one for a stronger signal. And he has included a picture of a wireless Internet router from Globe, which has prepaid WI fi on it. He says wireless Internet is not good enough to do some online work though in my experience, while download speeds are faster now, up to 50 Mbps, the upload speeds leave much to be desired. It's also not as stable or as reliable as fiber. A strong enough storm is enough to slow down most wireless Internet connections. So for me, that right there was really interesting. Download speeds up to 50Mbps is, is not, that's not slow. Okay, so it's not gigabit Internet that I have at my house, but it's still not slow and that's wireless. So that tells me that their wired speeds are faster. And then obviously, yeah, a strong enough storm is strong enough to not to slow things down. That's to be expected. So he continues, you can also feel the connection slowing down when a lot of users are on the network at the same time. But despite these disadvantages, wireless Internet is a popular option because we can easily get prepaid plans. So because he doesn't explain this, I'm going to explain this to you. So a prepaid plan means you can go in and buy data, which he's going to talk about how much you can go in and buy data and then it just sits there for you. So you spend $10 or like 500 pesos or 1000 pesos $20. And then you get an allocated amount of data that is on this SIM card or on your mobile router that you can use that data whenever you want. Often it'll expire in like a year, or it might expire in a month, or it might expire in six months and you'll know what's going to expire. And so you can buy what you need. You buy this, you don't use it until you need it, which is it? It's a pretty cheap Internet backup. So here's what he says. Despite these disadvantages, wireless Internet is a popular option because we can easily get prepaid plans. The lowest offering is five gigabytes of data for three days at $1. So for $1 you get three days of access up to five gigs. For $4 you can get up to 30 gigabytes of data for one week. Other packages offer higher data allowances, longer package expiration or special packages depending on the apps used. Now he's going to talk about specific service providers and this is interesting. I'll talk about at the end. I'll interject my opinion at the end. Pldt, which is the Philippines Long Distance Telephone Company, is the first telephone company in the Philippines. A lot of our Internet infrastructure uses the phone network established by this company. That's why a lot of their plans come bundled with a landline. These are their basic plans. The cheapest plan here, which he has an image is 25Mbps is around $23 per month. Their highest plan at 1Gbps requires those interested in contacting their sales. So you have to, you have to contact sales to get that plan. The 400Mbps plan is the one we're using at home. So far it's been able to support me, my husband. Well, that's interesting because this is a husband and wife. This is Jam and Julia. And one of them said they wrote this and then the other one actually writing it, which I, I guess I don't really care. So far it's been enough to support me, my husband who also works at home and our daughter's online classes. So this is man. 400 megabits a second. Like that's what my Internet was a year ago. That's where they are, 400 megabit at home. So yeah, that's like legit. That's no different realistically than most people in the US. Next Globe Communications. So Globe is PLDT's main competitor in providing wired and wireless Internet. Below are their fiber plan. Like pldt, they also provide landline services, but only for subscriptions. So 2,500 Filipino pesos, which is $45 and higher. There's an image here of their plans. You know it, I mean these, these numbers are pretty reasonable. Sky Cable is the next company. They're a cable company that also offers. Offers fiber. Sky Cable. There's the next provider. They're a cable company that also offers 5 fiber over cable broadband. You can get it with or without a cable subscription. The ones shown below are the plans without cable. And there's an image for me to see like their current plans from Sky Cable, then Converge. Converge used to be a small player providing home and business fiber connections in Metro Manila, but has slowly grown and expanded to many places in the Philippines. Their speed offerings are comparable to what the bigger players have and are offered at slightly cheaper rate. So that's Converge and then images of their plans. They also offer special rates based on time and usage. If your OFS exclusively works night, they can get the night plan which has double the speed at night. So I mean just really eye opening email from them. I thought it was him. I guess it's her who sent this to me. And like their Internet speeds are legit. I had someone this week say, oh, but I really need someone with a fast Internet. Yeah, that's really not an issue. Oh, but I also need them to have a fast computer. Well yeah, like a lot of people have MacBook Pros or they have iPhones or you know, not everybody does, but a lot of people like it's, it's not uncommon. The Philippines is. They're definitely not the same as in the US or in Europe in terms of computers at home or Internet speeds, but they're not far behind. She continues, I can't recommend which Internet service provider is the best because the availability and strength of connection of these ISPs depends on the area. To find the best ISP, you really need to do your research and ask a lot of questions. All over the Philippines are smaller ISPs like Rise, Infenivan and DC Tech. These smaller broadband ISPs used to only service businesses, but have recently started creating plans for homes and individual users. Their service coverage is localized. You have to check their website to see what cities they offer coverage. Now let me, let me offer you some advice. Do not go figure this out. Don't go and research Internet providers in the Philippines. You want to provide Internet to your ofs, talk to them, say hey, I want you to have 200 megabits a second, 400 megabits, whatever it is, go research the plans in your area. What's going to provide this? What's going to provide you the best, the most reliable connection and then can you also have a backup connection? And what do you need for that? And, and then consider, consider paying for this. I mean $45 a month is a significant amount when someone is making $600 a month. Like that's, it's, it's, that's a large portion of their income, right? $45 a month for us in the US is, is not, is not so much. So now in the end, Internet speeds or computer speeds should not be an excuse for you not hiring someone in the Philippines. If you have more questions, go check out ofsguide.com where I answer the top nine questions that I get asked and I get asked these things over and over again. OFSguide.com.