Complaints on Boracay’s slow Internet prompt governor to write telcos

Foreigners visiting the world’s best beach on this island have complained so much about slow Internet speeds that its governor is taking matters into his own hands.

No, he’s not putting up his own telecommunications company. But he won’t exactly be putting up with poor service either.

Aklan governor Florencio Miraflores said that the province will be “sending letters” to both Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, requesting faster Internet access after tourists have complained about Web connections slowing to a crawl.

“Our tourists who have been complaining that they need faster Internet while in Boracay both for leisure and business. This should be properly addressed if we need to maintain Boracay as a premier tourism destination,” he told Newsbytes.PH in an interview.

From January to June this year, the island has already attracted 1.1 million tourists, meeting a little more than half of Aklan province’s two million visitor target for 2017.

“Previously, we have been asking local and regional telecom managers [to do something about] slow Internet speed but they could not do anything. It is now the time that we will elevate this concerns to their national management,” he said.

In an earlier interview, Dennis Villorente an undersecretary of the Department of Information Communication and Technology (DICT) said the government is planning to have a national summit soon. To be held in Metro Manila, the summit is expected to discuss the mandate of the Duterte administration to speed up the Internet service in the country.