Limiting your internet use is good for you!

By On January 12, 2011 · 44 Comments · In Columns, Minimum Broadband Connections, Telecommunications

In an ideal world, people who make decisions about specific areas of governance have expertise in them. In the real world they are lawyers. At the National Telecommunications Commission hearing livestreamed by Blogwatch yesterday, this became painfully clear as representatives of the telecoms industry and bureaucrats from the NTC chose not to tackle the issue of capping broadband use head-on.

They either made insipid comments about the state of the internet in the Philippines or chose not to go on record by indicating that they have already submitted their position papers. The technical issues and implications, predictably, came from consumers – ordinary people who were wired enough to have caught wind of such a hearing in the first place. Ordinary people who, for the day, could afford to take some time off to articulate their opposition to the plans of capping broadband usage.

The dominant frame that came out of this public hearing was this: a small number of users (by their own admission no more than 2% of the total) abuse their internet privileges. The telcos want to improve service by limiting daily usage of the vast majority of netizens.

Essentially they are saying limiting your internet use, in the end, is good for you! If you are unable to stream all your favourite videos on Youtube, this is good for you! If you are unable to torrent whatever, this is good for you! If you are unable to download all the PDFs you might need for school work, this is good for you! If you are unable to speak with as many people as you want for however long you want on Skype, this is good for you! If you own an internet café and you specialise in online gaming, paying more for more bandwidth is good for you!

What isn’t good for you is the public and private sectors making investments to improve our telecommunications infrastructure.  What isn’t good for you is the expansion of the market by increasing capacity. What isn’t good for you is the NTC defining what the Memorandum Order means by users being online for an “unreasonably long period of time.”  What, pray tell, is unreasonable? 5 hours? 7? 10? Will they make an accounting of all their subscribers and decide who are and who are not entitled to use the internet for as long as they wish? Do students get priority? What about knowledge workers? People who work at home?

Today it is easy to take internet access for granted.  When your connection is crappy, then you realise the impact it has in your life, your work, your leisure. Had we not been wired, we would not have found out about this ‘public hearing’ in the first place.  Blogwatch would have been unable to livestream the hearing, I would not be writing this rant and you would not be reading it. @dementia on Twitter made a note on the scant news coverage on this issue by Old Media. This is rather remarkable. Your internet service provider is about to put limits on how you access the internet, with the aid of your own government, and you have no clue.

Liberty Chee has written 18 articles on this blog.
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  • mario taporco

    Because Filipinos have an extensive track record of not fully appreciating the value of resources (whether this be Internet bandwidth or lush hardwood forest) even if these were sitting under their flat noses. per benign

    This is a quite racial comment about our own kind here. But, it also true that our government in Pinas does not value the resources to be disperse to our people.

    That I agree…,!

    Also, the exaggerated publicity surrounding broadband socialism has been blown out of proportion over the past year. New political alliances have begun to promote regulations that will allow the Philippines government to use its seemingly idle hands to touch private pies, which they have “always” done in the past.

    Not only do presidential candidates such as Noynoy Aquino seek to subsidize technological rollouts at the expense of coerced taxpayers, but along with representative of the telecoms industry and bureaucrats from NTC, chose not to tackle the issue of capping broadband use head on, they want to regulate what network property owners do with their own infrastructure. All of this, is seemingly done under the guise of the new populistic policy called “network Neutrality.”

    Where would Philippines be, if they were to cap our netizens with hideous telco policy…,?

    • Bert

      mario,

      ‘flat noses’ is more of a physical thing than racial.

      And ‘racial comment’ can’t be applied to one who is speaking of himself. For example, (example lang, ha?) if benignO says, “Hey, dude, my parents are Filipinos and I’m a Filipino, see, we have a track record hence I can’t appreciate the value of anything even in front of my face because as you can very well see my nose is flat therefore I’m a moron”, can you accuse the guy of making a racial comment?

  • mario taporco

    Because Filipinos have an extensive track record of not fully appreciating the value of resources (whether this be Internet bandwidth or lush hardwood forest) even if these were sitting under their flat noses. per benign

    This is a quite racial comment about our own kind here. But, it also true that our government in Pinas does not value the resources to be disperse to our people.

    That I agree…,!

    Also, the exaggerated publicity surrounding broadband socialism has been blown out of proportion over the past year. New political alliances have begun to promote regulations that will allow the Philippines government to use its seemingly idle hands to touch private pies, which they have “always” done in the past.

    Not only do presidential candidates such as Noynoy Aquino seek to subsidize technological rollouts at the expense of coerced taxpayers, but along with representative of the telecoms industry and bureaucrats from NTC, chose not to tackle the issue of capping broadband use head on, they want to regulate what network property owners do with their own infrastructure. All of this, is seemingly done under the guise of the new populistic policy called “network Neutrality.”

    Where would Philippines be, if they were to cap our netizens with hideous telco policy…,?

    • Bert

      mario,

      ‘flat noses’ is more of a physical thing than racial.

      And ‘racial comment’ can’t be applied to one who is speaking of himself. For example, (example lang, ha?) if benignO says, “Hey, dude, my parents are Filipinos and I’m a Filipino, see, we have a track record hence I can’t appreciate the value of anything even in front of my face because as you can very well see my nose is flat therefore I’m a moron”, can you accuse the guy of making a racial comment?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_O7CBSJGZDIYKJYGZZIBVIHQVHA benign

    Yeah, congratulations guys. You’ve simply paved the way for Big Media to pump even MORE of their crap into the pointed little heads of Da Pinoy. :D

    • Manuelbuencamino

      “How exactly does not hearing about the latest news “impact” one’s life, work, and leisure?”

    • Liberty Chee

      Did you even read up on this issue? You’re way off-tangent.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_O7CBSJGZDIYKJYGZZIBVIHQVHA benign

    Yeah, congratulations guys. You’ve simply paved the way for Big Media to pump even MORE of their crap into the pointed little heads of Da Pinoy. :D

    • Manuelbuencamino

      “How exactly does not hearing about the latest news “impact” one’s life, work, and leisure?”

    • Liberty Chee

      Did you even read up on this issue? You’re way off-tangent.

  • Bert

    Good work, guys! NTC has junked the cap proposal.

    • cocoy

      A battle won; the war goes on.

  • Bert

    Good work, guys! NTC has junked the cap proposal.

    • cocoy

      A battle won; the war goes on.

  • GabbyD

    my problem with this is that the cap is not specified.

    if they want 2 impose a cap, they should regulate the size of the cap, and increase it regularly.

  • GabbyD

    my problem with this is that the cap is not specified.

    if they want 2 impose a cap, they should regulate the size of the cap, and increase it regularly.

  • http://twitter.com/blogie Blogie Robillo

    We should be vigilant over this issue. The news services seem to be dragging their feet covering it, so it’s in our interest to keep watch.

  • http://twitter.com/blogie Blogie Robillo

    We should be vigilant over this issue. The news services seem to be dragging their feet covering it, so it’s in our interest to keep watch.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Vincent-Maldia/100001023048460 Vincent Maldia

    LRT analogy. if the LRT is crowded, and a lot of us go mall hopping using the LRT, can the government cap LRT rides? What I’m doing is legal and I paid for the LRT ticket so I should be able to ride as much as I want. If the LRT is overcrowded thats not my problem. So what if the LRT is a shared resource? Thats not my problem

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_O7CBSJGZDIYKJYGZZIBVIHQVHA benign

    How exactly does not hearing about the latest news “impact” one’s life, work, and leisure? America landed a man on the moon using computing power that was less than a tenth of what is in the average schmoe’s celphone. No modern film has equaled the impact on pop culture that the movie Star Wars delivered using 1970′s technology.

    Noynoy Aquino — the first President who ran a significant campaign online using modern social networking technology delivered over the Web also happens to be the lamest and most substance-thin President in Philippine history.

    The correlation between technology availability and delivery of REAL value just isn’t there in the Philippine setting. Why? Because Filipinos have an extensive track record of not fully appreciating the value of resources (whether this be Internet bandwidth or lush hardwood forests) even if these were sitting under their flat noses.

    Even money in the form of cold cash thrown before the Da Pinoy gets squandered on the cheap imported Chinese trinkets we have become addicted to.

    Internet bandwidth and access are just another set of resources that is being pitched as a key to prosperity. But its causal relationship to said prosperity which remains plainly UNSUBSTANTIATED despite three — and counting — blog posts about this issue here.

    • Manuelbuencamino

      “How exactly does not hearing about the latest news “impact” one’s life, work, and leisure?”

      If you didn’t get the latest news back in 2004 you would have booked a vacation in Phuket right after the tsunami hit. Idiot.

      • Bert

        or benignO would be planning his Sunday picnic in Queensland.

    • jeg

      Wala ka talagang kakupas-kupas, benny. :-D I bet one could write a blogpost about Amazonian tree frogs and benny will find a way to shoehorn it into his favorite topic. Anyway…

      Internet bandwidth and access are just another set of resources that is being pitched as a key to prosperity.

      Information. A key to information, not prosperity. Granted most of us still have to learn to make use of — and indeed appreciate the value of — this information, but the information has to be there and available. We wouldnt have access to your brilliant (heehee) analyses if we didnt have access to it via the internet, correct? Or maybe you’d rather use the postal service?

      Entire libraries are being downloaded. Books, music, movies. This is good for the Pinoy. That the NTC would rather protect the profits of IP (hah!) owners and telcos by using ‘abusive users’ as justification for the cap instead of the well-being of the citizens just goes to show where government priorities lie. But sure, we have to be able to do something with the information. But the information has to be there. Granting without conceding, benny, that the Pinoy doesnt generate any useful information on his own, shouldnt they be able to have access to ideas from elsewhere?

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_O7CBSJGZDIYKJYGZZIBVIHQVHA benign

        Indeed, Jeg old buddy. People like me benefit from the universal internet access by *my audience*. That’s because I am a content publisher — just like the Media who are championing excess net access — so they could pump *their* content into the little minds of their own audiences. But, see, the difference between content publishers like me and Big Media like ABS-CBN is that people like moi prodice *insightful* content whereas ABS-CBN produce crap for the most part.

        Perhaps if this quaint advocacy did not pretend to be looking out for the “public interest” and instead recognised clearly *who stood to gain the most* from universal excessive access to the Net, then you guys wouldn’t have monumentally struggled to answer my simple questions. :D

        • Manuelbuencamino

          “How exactly does not hearing about the latest news “impact” one’s life, work, and leisure?”

        • GabbyD

          you are so funny B0. keep it up! :)

    • Liberty Chee

      I didn’t say news. I said the INTERNET impacts our life, work and leisure.

      Doesn’t your office use the internet to function?

      If you couldn’t access the net, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Group blogs run by people in different parts of the world wouldn’t be possible.

      Don’t you communicate and maintain social relationships across long distances via the internet?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Vincent-Maldia/100001023048460 Vincent Maldia

    LRT analogy. if the LRT is crowded, and a lot of us go mall hopping using the LRT, can the government cap LRT rides? What I’m doing is legal and I paid for the LRT ticket so I should be able to ride as much as I want. If the LRT is overcrowded thats not my problem. So what if the LRT is a shared resource? Thats not my problem

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_O7CBSJGZDIYKJYGZZIBVIHQVHA benign

    How exactly does not hearing about the latest news “impact” one’s life, work, and leisure? America landed a man on the moon using computing power that was less than a tenth of what is in the average schmoe’s celphone. No modern film has equaled the impact on pop culture that the movie Star Wars delivered using 1970′s technology.

    Noynoy Aquino — the first President who ran a significant campaign online using modern social networking technology delivered over the Web also happens to be the lamest and most substance-thin President in Philippine history.

    The correlation between technology availability and delivery of REAL value just isn’t there in the Philippine setting. Why? Because Filipinos have an extensive track record of not fully appreciating the value of resources (whether this be Internet bandwidth or lush hardwood forests) even if these were sitting under their flat noses.

    Even money in the form of cold cash thrown before the Da Pinoy gets squandered on the cheap imported Chinese trinkets we have become addicted to.

    Internet bandwidth and access are just another set of resources that is being pitched as a key to prosperity. But its causal relationship to said prosperity which remains plainly UNSUBSTANTIATED despite three — and counting — blog posts about this issue here.

    • Manuelbuencamino

      “How exactly does not hearing about the latest news “impact” one’s life, work, and leisure?”

      If you didn’t get the latest news back in 2004 you would have booked a vacation in Phuket right after the tsunami hit. Idiot.

      • Bert

        or benignO would be planning his Sunday picnic in Queensland.

    • jeg

      Wala ka talagang kakupas-kupas, benny. :-D I bet one could write a blogpost about Amazonian tree frogs and benny will find a way to shoehorn it into his favorite topic. Anyway…

      Internet bandwidth and access are just another set of resources that is being pitched as a key to prosperity.

      Information. A key to information, not prosperity. Granted most of us still have to learn to make use of — and indeed appreciate the value of — this information, but the information has to be there and available. We wouldnt have access to your brilliant (heehee) analyses if we didnt have access to it via the internet, correct? Or maybe you’d rather use the postal service?

      Entire libraries are being downloaded. Books, music, movies. This is good for the Pinoy. That the NTC would rather protect the profits of IP (hah!) owners and telcos by using ‘abusive users’ as justification for the cap instead of the well-being of the citizens just goes to show where government priorities lie. But sure, we have to be able to do something with the information. But the information has to be there. Granting without conceding, benny, that the Pinoy doesnt generate any useful information on his own, shouldnt they be able to have access to ideas from elsewhere?

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_O7CBSJGZDIYKJYGZZIBVIHQVHA benign

        Indeed, Jeg old buddy. People like me benefit from the universal internet access by *my audience*. That’s because I am a content publisher — just like the Media who are championing excess net access — so they could pump *their* content into the little minds of their own audiences. But, see, the difference between content publishers like me and Big Media like ABS-CBN is that people like moi prodice *insightful* content whereas ABS-CBN produce crap for the most part.

        Perhaps if this quaint advocacy did not pretend to be looking out for the “public interest” and instead recognised clearly *who stood to gain the most* from universal excessive access to the Net, then you guys wouldn’t have monumentally struggled to answer my simple questions. :D

        • Manuelbuencamino

          “How exactly does not hearing about the latest news “impact” one’s life, work, and leisure?”

        • GabbyD

          you are so funny B0. keep it up! :)

    • Liberty Chee

      I didn’t say news. I said the INTERNET impacts our life, work and leisure.

      Doesn’t your office use the internet to function?

      If you couldn’t access the net, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Group blogs run by people in different parts of the world wouldn’t be possible.

      Don’t you communicate and maintain social relationships across long distances via the internet?

  • not4mike

    If so, “unlimited” Internet access packages w/conditions of capping = limited bandwidth, means that your Internet access would be quite “limited” now instead, simply put.

  • not4mike

    If so, “unlimited” Internet access packages w/conditions of capping = limited bandwidth, means that your Internet access would be quite “limited” now instead, simply put.

  • Worldsaleauktion

    I think the real reason for silly ideas like this is… they are afraid that big global player companies like Vodafone or Telecom are showing up on the Philippines and provide very quickly a fast and secure connection which are the local companies still not able to provide like they telling and offer.. I had no time to go there yesterday.. because I had to work… online. The result of limitation of internet connections will be that the welcome foreign investors will keep their nose out of this country and the country will go back in the stone age without any chance to grow. A stable and fast internet connection 24/7 is the basic of economic growing. If this people don t see the real world.. even if they are lawyers or however thinking they are clever or important, they are sitting on a lonely tree somewhere in the jungle.. whats the next silly idea, that I have to ask every day for a special permission if I have to work longer then they are thinking my use of the internet is “good” for me?

  • Worldsaleauktion

    I think the real reason for silly ideas like this is… they are afraid that big global player companies like Vodafone or Telecom are showing up on the Philippines and provide very quickly a fast and secure connection which are the local companies still not able to provide like they telling and offer.. I had no time to go there yesterday.. because I had to work… online. The result of limitation of internet connections will be that the welcome foreign investors will keep their nose out of this country and the country will go back in the stone age without any chance to grow. A stable and fast internet connection 24/7 is the basic of economic growing. If this people don t see the real world.. even if they are lawyers or however thinking they are clever or important, they are sitting on a lonely tree somewhere in the jungle.. whats the next silly idea, that I have to ask every day for a special permission if I have to work longer then they are thinking my use of the internet is “good” for me?

  • Manuelbuencamino

    great article

  • Manuelbuencamino

    great article