An EnGenius solution to limited bandwidth

MANILA, Philippines - There’s no imminent end in sight to the agony over woeful broadband quality in the Philippines, where people are supposedly charged the most for so little and so slow a service. On some level, it’s a chicken-and-egg matter. Are telcos unwilling to shell out more dough to further improve service, or is the general population simply averse to the idea of paying for enhanced connections?

Wherever the fault lies, there’s no getting around the simple fact that we have to improve mobile broadband penetration if we want to play in a bigger sandbox in a rapidly changing world. We need to do it immediately, too, in light of the implementation of ASEAN regional economic integration by next year.

This blueprint for growth obviously puts the onus on signatory states to ready themselves for “a single market and production base, a highly competitive economic region, a region of equitable economic development, and a region fully integrated into the global economy,” according to the ASEAN website (www.asean.org).

While we may assume the role of broadband laggards compared to, say, Singapore, there is hope for us yet in the form of quick fixes. At least that’s what EnGenius Networks Singapore Pte. Ltd. regional general manager Lawrence Lim says. “You’re (experiencing) limited bandwidth because Filipino usage of Internet is increasing. There are more people chatting, surfing, playing online games, logging onto Facebook,” he observes. “That challenge is being hurdled by offloading 3G or 4G onto wireless. This helps ease the bottleneck.”

EnGenius is a Taiwan-headquartered “leading provider of high-performance, versatile networking and telecommunications solutions for businesses and consumers,” and offers both wired and wireless, indoor and outdoor networking solutions for both home and business.

Replying to a question from The Philippine STAR at the EnGenius press conference, Lim likens the Philippine broadband situation to Singapore’s 15 years ago. Yes, you read that number correctly. Still, Lim asserts the country is just experiencing growing pains, and is undeniably on the road towards better connectivity. “Believe me, every country will go through this stage,” he says.

Again, the cost-effective solution, Lim avers, is offloading – measures that countries such as Thailand and Indonesia are also putting to work. EnGenius, reveals Lim, supplied more than 200,000 access points (APs) to Thailand, the last ASEAN country to launch 3G.

“This is the fastest, most reliable, and more economic way to enjoy benefits of speed,” Lim underscores.

EnGenius is a brand of Taiwan-based Senao Networks, which itself belongs to the larger conglomerate of Senao International. The biggest single investor in that company is ChungHwa Telecom, Taiwan’s leading telco. So, you might say EnGenius knows its stuff.

Senao is peopled by more than 2,000 in its various offices worldwide, which includes a complement of R&D people. Lim emphasizes: “We are slightly different from other Taiwanese companies (as) 100 percent of our products are made in Taiwan.”

EnGenius products, continues Lim, boast of six competitive advantages, which draw from end-to-end in-house capability. EnGenius engineers provide the mechanical design plus hardware and software R&D.  Manufacturing (with a monthly rollout of some one million products) is not jobbed out; same with a full quality control process through a gauntlet of tests. Then, of course, EnGenius assures sales and quality through its deployed team and knowledgeable partners.

Today, EnGenius serves up an array of products for its Philippine market including networking switches, professional and enterprise WiFi products, and a new, CES (Consumer Electronics Show)-awarded wireless management solution dubbed the Neutron Series. The last product is a “complete and scalable solution for operations looking to deploy, monitor, and manage numerous APs from one simple and accessible browser-based platform... (providing) centralized management capabilities and is quick and easy to set up.”

While it offers solutions for small offices and homes (less than 10 users), a midmarket niche (up to 1,000 users), and so-called Fortune 500 requirements (above 10,000 users), EnGenius is keenly focusing on a growing small and medium enterprise (SME) sector which, suggests Lim, needs to be served better.

“We want to bring enterprise products not just to enterprise customers but to corporate SME customers at a very affordable prices,” says the EnGenius executive. By “corporate,” Lim shares that he means institutions like schools, hospitals, and even malls which require reliable connectivity but may not have the budget to splurge on more obvious but costly high-end solutions.

Despite competitive pricing, EnGenius offers niceties such as three-year warranty support, free firmware updates, and even free mobile apps to get the most out of its products. Lim promises that the company will be setting up a direct office in the Philippines within two years – indicative of the bullish economic outlook at least from the company’s standpoint.

“I see more infrastructure, a lot of foreigners. The Filipino is getting richer,” insists Lim. “There’s huge opportunities, and much of the economic growth is not driven by bigger enterprises but SMEs… (and) there’s a gap in the market, where the SMB or corporate customer are finding challenges getting solutions that are affordable, simple to manage, easy to deploy, and easy to maintain.”

EnGenius obviously wants to bridge that gap.

For more information, visit engeniusnetworks.com.