Trunked radio operator ties up with 18 Internet service providers

Trunked radio operator Worldwide Communications Inc. has formed an alliance with 18 Internet service providers (ISPs) in the country to provide low cost wireless Internet access which can handle data speeds of over 60 times faster than what is currently available in the market.

Christopher Concepcion, WWC president, said they are working to convince majority of the estimated 200 ISPs nationwide to be part of Nowires.net, an all Filipino undertaking.

Concepcion said Corona International, a pioneer in wireless Internet technologies, and Philworld Online, a leading prepaid ISP, have already signed up.

Another top regional ISP has joined the group but refused to be identified. The rest of the members are small operators.

According to Concepcion, the strategy is to make the ISPs part of the organization to prevent them from transferring to other broadband data providers and to make the service much more affordable.

Nowires.net is still being operated by WWC even as there are plans to make it an independent company owned by the ISPs.

Concepcion pointed out that Nowires.net will be the one to get the international private lines, the satellite access and fiber optic cables and distribute them among the members, depending on the bandwidth requirement.

By buying in bulk, he said they can command the lowest price from foreign and local suppliers and subsequently be able to offer much cheaper service to the alliance.

For instance, he said an ISP which will do everything by itself will have to shell out at least $80,000 a month for 16 trunk lines each capable of handling data at 128 kilobits per second (kpbs).

By coursing it through Nowires.net, he said they will only have to spend half the amount or even lower.

"In one year, we expect to bring down the cost Internet charges to one-fourth the existing rate," Concepcion said.

At present, he said there is a huge but underserved demand for high bandwidth which is necessary to support electronic commerce, virtual private networks and full motion real time video conferencing on top of the usual Internet downloads.

Most broadband data companies now, he said, can only offer up to 10 megabits per second over shared cable while Nowires.net can provide speed of over 63 2.5 Mbps. For e-mail use, the capacity translates to over 80,000 pages of text in one second.

"Internet penetration in the Philippines is quite low, mainly because of the high cost of Internet service. By working together with other ISPs and telecom companies, we will bring Internet costs down significantly," Concepcion stressed. --