Elon Musk’s SpaceX is planning to bring satellite internet into the Philippines by partnering up with business tycoon Denny Anthony H. Uy, CEO of Converge.
Representatives of both companies have met on several occasions to discuss about the venture, as per Inquirer.net. The meetings came into place after SpaceX’s plans to deploy Starlink Satellites that orbit around Earth, promising of better, faster and more stable internet.
Starlink is a project by SpaceX whose goal is to provide high-speed and stable connections around the world. The satellite service is currently offering speeds of 50-150 Mbps internationally and domestically.
Last 3rd of February, Senator Grace Poe said that Starlink could be PH’s fourth official telco, but also found that the price may be too expensive for a regular subscriber, at least for the moment.
“It’s about $500 just to set this up, or about P25,000. Having said that, that’s not necessarily a bad thing because there’s probably a niche market that will be able to afford this technology. And we are also looking forward that, in the future, with more subscribers, the cost will go down” Poe said.
However, Converge said it is still ‘premature’ to discuss about the partnership.
“Converge is always looking for new technologies to bring high-speed internet services to the country, including the latest satellite technologies from Space Exploration Technologies Corp” Converge said.
Converge assures the Exchange and its investors that it will promptly make the necessary disclosures should there be any material developments in its exploratory talks with possible partners” they added.
The company said that they “doubled” in customer growth and fiber network expansion in 2019 as the company continues to expand in the country.
The discussion is not yet over and there is no final word between the two companies. We hope to see that satellite internet may become a regular option in the future, but for now, fiber internet is the way to go.
SOURCE: Business Inquirer, Converge
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