(Councilor Jay Sangil is joined by colleagues Alfie Bonifacio and Joseph Ponce in last Tuesday’s regular SP session. Contributed photo)
ANGELES CITY – Intermittent, slow, and an apparent price hike in the monthly bill of an internet service provider has prompted a veteran councilor here to conduct an investigation into its inadequacies.
Councilor Jesus “Jay” Sangil filed a resolution on Tuesday calling for an investigation into the Converge ICT Solutions, Inc. (Converge), in aid of legislation, for its alleged poor and costly service.
Sangil, chairman of the committee on public works and engineering in the sangguniang panlungsod (SP) said he received numerous complaints from his constituents, excluding complaints posted in social media that went viral against Converge, the city’s internet broadband provider.
In a privilege speech Sangil delivered at the SP last Tuesday, he said: “In aid of legislation, Madam Presiding Officer, the passage of a resolution urging the committees on public utilities and public works and engineering, to immediately conduct the appropriate public hearings to look into the true state of the broadband services industry in the city and to invite the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), as well as competent representatives from Converge ICT Solutions, Inc. and other similar private companies in this industry to provide expert and technical advice and recommendation on how to ensure the presence of affordable broadband services at globally-competitive speeds in Angeles City for the benefit of our people and the city’s economy.”
Sangil said Converge should explain why there was failure of internet service for days to its concessionaires as well as poor and slow internet connection.
But more importantly Converge should explain why it hiked its monthly billing to its subscribers, he said.
“We have all been told and are now well-aware that broadband is now considered among the basic utilities of modern life, a necessity as we go about our private affairs and business dealings,” Sangil noted.
“We also have all been told how broadband is critical to the continued growth of small and big businesses, how broadband may create alternative home-based job opportunities for our people, how broadband may revolutionize public education, safety and health care,” he added.
“But sadly, it is very unfortunate that we are seemingly saddled by a widely perceived inefficient and expensive broadband services,” he lamented.
“We need not look far to see the importance of affordable internet services at globally-competitive speeds. All we need to see are the presence of the significant number of BPO companies, both local and international, thriving within Angeles City itself and directly employing thousands of Angelenos,” he noted.
Sangil said his resolution is in consonance with a resolution the SP passed last week urging Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin Jr. “to adopt programs and projects that will enable Angeles City to keep pace with the developments inside the Clark Freeport Zone in order to fully effect mutually beneficial progress redounding to betterment of lives of each and every Angeleno.”
