Press Release
Need for connectivity grows as more Filipinos work abroad
[June 23, 2008/ Manila] - As more and more Filipinos leave for better economic opportunities abroad, the Internet will become an indispensable means for families to stay in touch across the seas.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), in a June 7 statement, said that “the global deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is on track to reach and surpass the one million mark in 2008.”
According to the latest preliminary report of the DOLE’s Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), “the global deployment for both land- and sea-based OFWs rose by 14% with an average of 3,300 OFWs deployed worldwide daily.”
In a media release issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on June 13, it cited this double-digit growth in deployment as one of the factors that fuelled the continued rise in remittances recorded for the first four months. From January to April 2008, remittance level reached US$5.4 billion, 14.5% higher than the year-ago level.
Remittances influence the country’s economic growth. Families (those with OFWs) increase their purchasing power and have more money to invest. On a larger scale, remittances benefit the country by enabling it to pay the national debt which consequently improves its credit standing.
With the increase in deployment, many more OFWs will be able to help the country as they make sacrifices to provide for the needs of their families. After all, it is not easy to be away from your loved ones, laboring in some foreign land. There is that constant longing to be with the people you love.
A March 28-31 Social Weather Survey featured in a daily broadsheet showed that there is an estimated 2.5 million families with an OFW, out of the country’s 18 million families. “There are about 500,000 in Metro Manila, 1.1 million elsewhere in Luzon, 500,000 in the Visayas, and 400,000 in Mindanao” read the report of Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Mahar Mangahas.
Babes Salanguit’s brood became part of this statistics last April when her eldest daughter Ann Jensen, aged 26, started work as a call center agent in Dubai.
All over the country, there are families separated from relatives working abroad. These families and their OFW relatives cope with their predicament by constantly keeping in touch.
Fortunately, the communication arena has considerably widened since the 1970’s when the Philippines began deploying OFWs. Recent years have seen the rise in the use of the Internet as a means of bridging the distance.
“I email and chat with my daughter three times a week,” shares Salanguit. Her other children also keep their Ate updated through the Internet. “Parang andito lang siya,” says the mother. Their home computer is connected to the Internet via Smart Bro, Smart Broadband, Inc.’s fixed wireless Internet solution.
Smart Bro is a revolutionary high-speed broadband Internet service that uses the nationwide network of Smart to wirelessly connect a computer to the World Wide Web without need of a phone line.
Belinda Velasco, who works in a hotel in Colorado, financed the PC unit and webcam that her family now uses when talking to her on the Internet. “Every weekend, when everyone is at home, including the pamangkins, we chat with Ate Mabel,” says younger sister Allyn Sibayan.
In the absence of a computer, Smart subscribers can also access the Internet at broadband speeds on their 3-G capable handsets through the Smart mobile Internet.
Just as it democratized mobile communication, Smart is stepping up efforts to make the Internet available to a broader segment of the population in pursuit of its “Internet for All” advocacy.
“The Internet is the new cellular. The Internet should be for all. We will make it more accessible, widely available to more and more Filipinos,” says Orlando B. Vea, Smart’s Chief Wireless Advisor.
Through its wholly-owned subsidiary SMART Broadband, Inc. (SBI), the leading wireless services provider recently broke ground when it launched Smart Bro Prepaid with affordable sachet pricing, nationwide coverage, and easy loading. It makes use of a small, USB-type wireless modem called Smart Bro Plug-It, that can be hooked into a desktop PC or laptop to connect the user to Smart's nationwide wireless broadband network.
Depending on their budget and preference, families of overseas Filipino workers can choose from Internet services offered by Smart coupled with other PLDT communication solutions.
Jan and Tamsi San Jose chat with their older brother Christian Bernard, a physical therapist in Maryland, three times a week. For clearer communication, they use the Skype technology which requires a fast and reliable Internet connection, something that PLDT MyDSL is able to provide, attests Jan.
PLDT MyDSL is a fixed broadband Internet access that allows for much higher rates of data transfer. Monthly postpaid plans come in different packages based on subscriber needs and consumption.
For dial-up Internet service that is fast and reliable and boasts of a nationwide coverage, there’s PLDT Vibe which is available in prepaid, pay-per-surf, and postpaid/unlimited plans.
With more OFW families needing to get in touch with their loved ones overseas and with the Internet becoming a popular means for them to stay connected, the benefits of “Internet for All” is bound to ripple across oceans and reach Filipinos in different countries. @