From footpath to superhighway: Phl Internet @ 20

MANILA, Philippines - The people who connected the Philippines to the Internet 20 years ago had no idea how big it was going to be.

“The only thing I wanted was to have people like me, scientists, getting access to the world of scientific information,” said Dr. Rodolfo Villarica, founding president of the Philippine Network Foundation, the group that established the country’s first live connection to global Internet.

“Now it’s mind-boggling what the Internet has done. It has allowed overseas Filipino workers to stay in touch with their loved ones back home. It has also paved the way for industries to grow. One can establish a small company and sell worldwide. Call centers, the business process outsourcing industry would not have evolved if not for the Internet. It has grown from being an information footpath to a superhighway,” he said.

Indeed, it would have been difficult in 1994 to imagine what the Internet could do when the bandwidth was at 64 Kbps and the cost to maintain the connection was $10,000 a month.

“Now, nobody even looks at 64 Kbps. And Internet access is so cheap, it’s one of the few goods that defy inflation,” Villarica noted.

Much bigger impact in the next 20 years

 Because of the increasing affordability and accessibility of the Internet, experts say it will have a much bigger impact on people’s lives in the years to come.

John Dang, founder of Zipmatch — an online community of real estate sellers, developers, buyers, and brokers — said there would come a day when people would be able to buy a house online.

“We have started to automate the home-buying process. Some people might think this is farfetched, but we have to remember that years ago, people did not even think they could buy shoes online,” Dang said during “20.PH.NET and Beyond,” a series of talks hosted by the Smart Developer Network (Smart DevNet) as part of the #20PHNET events organized by various tech communities to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Philippine Internet.

Amazon Web Services technology evangelist Markku Lepisto said in the same event that the Internet would enable big data analytics to move from providing historical and real-time information, to providing predictive data.

Other speakers at the Smart DevNet event held at Jump Experience Center in SM Megamall were government security contractor Milo Pacamarra who discussed the future of Internet security; Uber’s Asian launcher Douglas Ma who talked about the impact of technology on transportation; and Microsoft Philippines open source software specialist Edison Tan who gave a talk on the future of computing.

Internet as a human right

 Seeing the positive impact of the Internet on the lives of millions of people, former National Computer Center managing director Dr. William Torres said Filipinos should now push for even wider Internet access.

“We want more Filipinos to do things with the Internet that could generate wealth for themselves and their communities. The Internet should really be a human right. Wider access is not impossible to achieve. We can reach out to all nooks and crannies of the archipelago because we have the capability to engineer a system that could do this,” Torres said during a recent tribute dinner organized by Smart Communications Inc. for the pioneers and current movers of Philippine Internet.

Smart’s tribute dinner last March 29 at Peninsula Manila hotel was held with the support of the Department of Science and Technology, the Philippine chapter of the global Internet Society, and PH.Net, the country’s original educational Internet network.

Internet in the hands of every Filipino

 Smart chief wireless advisor Orlando Vea said the company has been pushing an “Internet for All” advocacy for several years now.

“We want to put the Internet in the hands of every Filipino, just like we did for mobile,” Vea said, adding that Smart recently launched the PowerApp mobile application which lets users avail themselves of Photo, Social, Chat, E-mail, and Unli mobile data packages for as low as P5.

“From something novel and accessible only to a few, Philippine Internet is now woven into the fabric of every Filipino’s life. On behalf of Smart, I just want to congratulate all the movers and the shakers behind its 20 years of growth,” Vea said.

Villarica said a lot of people had worked hard to establish that crucial first connection which sparked mind-boggling growth. “I was asked who were the people behind this and I counted about 88 people. They say the father of failure is only one but the father of success is many,” he said.