Cable link economical vs wireless — player
‘Wireless is a more expensive play for a company to launch and to offer. Even our franchise does not cover wireless; we do not have frequency and it is really for cable’
Daily Tribune‘Wireless is a more expensive play for a company to launch and to offer. Even our franchise does not cover wireless; we do not have frequency and it is really for cable’
Cable connection will remain the preferred provider of telecommunications customers over wireless broadband using expensive satellites, despite the boom of telco companies that offer wireless connection, a local telecom player maintained.
"There is always an advantage to cable broadband services, as wireless connection (using satellites) is very costly. There are some disadvantages to wired, like natural calamities, when wires are hit by a truck, as not all wired services are already underground because its construction cost is also expensive. The market is very price-sensitive," said Paco Magsaysay, president and CEO of Asian Vision, a company formed in 1973, that brought cable TV to underserved towns in Batangas, Quezon and Zambales.
Added Magsaysay in an interview over the DAILY TRIBUNE's digital online show Straight Talk, "Wireless is a more expensive play for a company to launch and to offer. Even our franchise does not cover wireless; we do not have frequency and it is really for cable."
Asian Vision ventured into providing Cable Broadband Internet in 2005.
In the lead
To date, Asian Vision is said to be leading the way in delivering Fiber Internet — a high-speed, uncapped solution for schools, hotels, government offices, hospitals, and industries.
"Wired services offer more bandwidth in the future, so these companies that offer wired services come into play because we offer a more economical bandwidth than wireless. The cable broadband can offer 1 gigabyte depending on the customers' needs," he said.
The four major internet service providers in the Philippines include PLDT, Globe Telecom, Converge ICT Solutions and DITO Telecommunity, which offer a range of packages and speeds to cater to different needs and budgets of customers.
Expansion plans
Magsaysay, the son of former Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and grandson of former President Ramon Magsaysay, said Asian Vision plans to collaborate with other cable providers as part of its expansion efforts.
"We have a telco franchise, and we are planning to work with other cable companies and maximize their outside plants. Hopefully, we can work with them as a partner but not buy them out as we feel that it is important to have a local partner in each area — whether it be in the Visayas or Mindanao or even Northern Luzon," he said.
Also, Magsaysay said his cable company is looking forward to having a foreign partner to help it grow further.
Foreign funding not a bad thing
"It is not a bad thing to have foreign funding to come in to help grow a business. But right now, we are not yet there as we have to do a lot of in-house fixing before talking to these funding companies. Hopefully, we will get to that point in a year or so," according to Magsaysay.
In 2022, President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act 11659 amending the 85-year-old Public Service Act, making telecommunications, airlines, expressways and tollways, railways, and shipping in the country open to full foreign ownership.
The tweaking of the PSA excluded these economic sectors from the definition of public utility and is thus no longer subject to the 40-percent foreign ownership cap on public utilities under the 1987 Constitution.
Ice cream his first business
Before his involvement in the telco industry, Magsaysay founded Carmen's Best Ice Cream in 2011, a small business which he started with a capital of P600,000 but which he grew and was eventually acquired by Metro Pacific Investment Corporation for close to a billion pesos.
The pandemic also hit his ice cream company, a business-to-business venture catering to restaurants, airlines, and resorts — industries that were all shuttered because of Covid-19.
Instead of closing the ice cream business, Magsaysay said his saving grace came when Manuel V. Pangilinan, the president of MPIC and the Pangilinan Group, offered him a partnership and acquired his business and his family's dairy farm in 2022.