A Plea to Consider The Upgrade of Globe Infrastructure in Barangay Bonawon, Siaton, Negros Oriental

Good day, awesome Pillars of Globe Telecom.

My name is Ian Limpangog, a resident of Barangay Bonawon in the Municipality of Siaton, Province of Negros Oriental. Though I am frequently away because I spend most of my time in Cebu—since it is where my workplace is located—I am always updated with the events and major developments of our barangay. Also, I go home on weekends or whenever there are long holidays. Most of the time, I keep in touch with family and friends from the province online, normally via Facebook messenger.

Our barangay got connected to the internet around 2010 or 2011. When the barangay’s lone cellular network went online, we were elated that we finally got integrated into the internet world. Adaptation was slow, but for the past two to three years, we were gaining momentum. The 3G and HSDPA experience was way better. Moreover, the internet demand grew higher when the young population started to get hold of their own smartphones. After then, we started to feel that the experience is deteriorating as more and more people are scrambling their way to connect.

Now that the pandemic is still looming and that social distancing and distance learning are highly encouraged, the demand is eventually near its peak. With the current Globe infrastructure, large file downloads, video calls or conferencing, and performing data-demanding processes are challenges that we constantly face. The experience is a lot disturbing for those who live outside the tower’s 300-meter radius. 

I am sorry if I could not provide any data to prove my observation but please check the network load that you receive at the cell tower in the barangay.

Without the performance data, we are still hoping that you will consider our plea to upgrade the network infrastructure in our barangay to 4G. We have one junior/senior high school campus with over a thousand students, around five elementary school campuses (only one has decent cellular reach), and a little over ten thousand residents that will benefit from the upgrade. Some parts of our neighboring barangay will gain from the connection too.

The upgrade will not only aid our students’ and teachers’ distance learning needs, but will also integrate the population to all the convenience brought by the internet, such as online banking, digital payments, e-commerce, remote employment, and many more. 

The feature-rich GCash is one of the fintechs that I admire. Sending money home could be a lot easier if using the GCash app is not a painful experience. Yes, accessing the GCash application using the network service that you provide in our barangay is almost impossible.

Also, we would love having a fixed broadband line traversing the major streets of our barangay so that we have another reliable option to plug in when need arises.

I bet, many are willing to pay for the service.

Thank you very much and I hope that you will consider.

• Ian Limpangog
• June 26, 2020
• Categories: Personal