Wave of the future
ture of cables and cell sites costs a lot of money and if there is not enough volume to justify the commercial viability then we will have huge gaps of no connectivity in many areas in the Philippines. Plus there is a problem of degraded service due to congestion or disrupted service due to the far too often calamities.
Even now, the average internet speed in the Philippines is only 2.0 Mbps with only 3.6% of the Philippines with internet speeds above 4Mbps and only 0.2% exceeding 10Mbps.
The only solution in sight to this problem is Satellite Broadband, which can provide speeds of up to 20 Mbps anywhere in the Philippines, not at some future point in time but right now. Yes, the system is already in place and have been tested in the Philippines with iGSat, providing a real alternative to having no or slow internet connection at an affordable price.
As cash becomes more dangerous and inconvenient to carry around, more and more people will opt to have their money in cashless form like a debit or prepaid card. However, the big hindrance to this was the need to have a bank account tied up with your debit card, excluding the vast majority of Filipinos who would not qualify to open a bank account.
This situation has been overcome by a local company called Omnipay that ties up with local government units, remittance companies and even banks to provide co- branded cards that can be used to withdraw cash in any ATM or to pay for transactions with accredited merchants without the need for the holder to open a bank account! Funding the card could be done from a master account similar to a payroll account or by remittance companies crediting the card.
This is quite similar to cash transactions involving your cell phone like G Cash.
Unemployment and underemployment will continue to hound us due to the lack of local employment generation opportunities.
We are not able to create jobs for the less educated or less skilled workers. This is because we have a very high cost of doing business in the Philippines such as the cost of power and anti- business government policies such as an overbearing bureaucracy. This is the reason why we continue to have thousands of Filipinos leaving the Philippines every day to work elsewhere.
Unfortunately, the money that could have been used to generate employment opportunities have been used to fund “hand- outs” to the very same people who could not find jobs, such as the “pantawid pamilyang Pilipino program”.
Finally, the quality of education in most public schools will continue to be below par.
While the Department of Education already has the highest budgetary allocation, it is simply a case of doing too much with too little and the K-12 program has only succeeded in further stretching the already limited resources of government.
With a limited and standardized salary program, the ability to hire the best teachers is non-existent, with the best educators taking better paying jobs with private schools. Since public schools are prevented from collecting funds or charging fees, their ability to update or upgrade their facilities and equipment is very limited. With the deadly combination of less than desirable teachers and inadequate facilities, the end result is mediocre students.
I will keep this and give you a report a year from now if my thoughts on what the future would bring turns out the way I said it. (Comments may be sent to georgechuaph@yahoo.com)