MVP on the speedy future of internet and why he admires RSA
The tycoon smiles and smiles a lot.
A relaxed PLDT chairman and CEO Manny V. Pangilinan met the media last week for the country’s first demo of the ultra-fast Gigabit Fiber internet in a smart home in Forbes Park, Makati City.
PLDT Home’s new Gigabit Fiber plans deliver up to 10 Gbps speeds – 100 times faster than the current average broadband speed in the country.
MVP was joined in demonstrating the power and speeds of the Gigabit Fiber internet to the media by PLDT FVP and head of group corporate communications Cathy Yang, PLDT SVP and head of consumer business home Jeremiah de la Cruz, and PLDT SVP and head of network Butch Jimenez.
How big is the market for Gigabit Fiber in the Philippines? How do you think the market would accept this? We asked.
“I think, like all things, everything starts off with the premium end of the market,” said Jeremiah de la Cruz. “When new innovations, new technologies come through, even when you look at, say, smartphones, they first started either in the top end of the market or it started with the enterprise. And over time, as it becomes more and more used, it actually becomes more and more mainstream. What’s really, really important is when you make gigabit fiber available to the market, it actually fosters different types of innovation, new services, new products, new things that people can actually do with those sort of speeds and that infrastructure. And, you know, whether that’s artificial intelligence, whether that’s machine learning, maybe it’s even other types of video streaming. It really starts to bring all of those new things into the ecosystem.”
Somehow, the conversation digressed from internet to the new consortium that won that bid for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport — headed by his erstwhile business rival Ramon S. Ang.
“Frankly, I was not surprised — having competed against Ramon in the past. So, congratulations!” MVP said.
When asked further if he believes RSA would do a good job with the NAIA rehab, MVP said, “I see no reason why he shouldn’t. I mean, you may question his tactics. You may question his motivation. But I think he’s fairly serious. I mean, his Tollways are more profitable than ours. He’s built quite a lot of them, and he’s building more.
“One of his characteristics is that — why am I singing praises to Ramon?” MVP laughed. “You know, he’s also a mechanic at heart. So he likes to tinker. And I think he does a lot of checking up on tollways. I don’t do that. I mean, I think he travels across the tollways to check on the tollways quite often. It’s what I heard also. I think that’s what he’ll do. He’s found a new toy in NAIA. So, he’s gonna be at it, I think, quite diligently…I’ve seen him work up close. I think he’s frankly underestimated.”
For MVP, this new alliance with RSA — from business to sports — augurs well for the country.
“Well, I think the tangible example of being able to work together and producing a significant tangible benefit to the country is the cooperation we showed in the FIBA World Cup. And, of course, the Asian Games. I think we’d like to bring that on to the businesses he owns, business that we own as well. So, I think we’re looking forward to rather than competing, we should combine our forces to do better for the Philippines, ‘di ba? And I think both of us can do better. We can produce more benefits by working together.”
With the speed of PLDT Gigabit Fiber, I have no doubt!
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