BFWGaming

The Inquirer reports that PLDT, the leading telecommunications provider in the Philippines is nearing it’s one million subscriber milestone. PLDT … bringing sub-standard broadband to the Philippines and providing it’s gaming customers headaches with it’s high ping.

MAKATI CITY, Philippines–Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) said it is close to hitting the one million mark for the number of broadband subscriptions.

The company reported about 980,000 subscribers for its wireless and fixed line broadband services as of the end of 2008. Of this figure, 547,000 subscribers are from PLDT’s SmartBro wireless broadband service, PLDT said.

SmartBro’s new prepaid kit Plug-It recorded 124,000 subscriptions since it was introduced in April 2008, the company said.

PLDT’s fixed line MyDSL service added 168,000 new subscriptions, bringing the total to 433,000 subscribers.

Reporting on the company’s 2008 revenues, PLDT President and CEO Napoleon Nazareno said total revenues from their wireless broadband and Internet services increased to 45 percent since 2007. This brings the total revenues from these services to P11 billion as of 2008.

The arrival of low-cost and Internet mobile devices and small-form factor netbooks drove the demand for broadband subscriptions.

“The availability of the prepaid model also made it easier for people to get broadband connection,” Nazareno said.

The company is also investing on the new High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 850 cellular infrastructure that provides faster wireless Internet connectivity.

Go to Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20090303-192120/PLDT-broadband-subs-nears-1M-mark

A lot of big words, but the big question is … how will this affect the regular consumer/gamer? My guess … not much. Read on for more …

PASAY CITY, Philippines–The Department of Science and Technology-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI) said the Philippines is going to be part of an Asia Pacific broadband Internet infrastructure initiative.

This was made known after the Trans-Eurasia Information Network version 3 (TEIN3) was launched during the annual Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT) here on Wednesday.

The DOST-ASTI will manage the TEIN3 programs in the country and will connect to the Philippine Research Education and Government Information Network (Preginet), which is a local high-speed Internet infrastructure loop connecting dozens of research and development, medical, weather, agricultural and educational institutions.

Over 160 Philippine institutions are connected to Preginet, which allows for high performance computing and video conferencing.

TEIN3, conceived during an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in 2000, provides high-speed connectivity among high-level research and development, and educational facilities across Asia.

The TEIN3 project will run until 2011.

(continue reading…)