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After years of reliable telco services, my neighborhood has recently been plagued with spotty fiberlink connection following a change in our main cable box last week.

Our neighborhood association had informed us about a temporary disruption while the main box was replaced. Unfortunately, after the two-hour disruption, when service was supposedly restored, lo and behold, some areas had lost their connection, including ours.

My husband caught the team that had done the job as they were about to depart to complain and have them check why our service was not restored, resulting in the loss of  our internet service, cable and telephone connection.

Initially, they seemed accommodating and agreed to check our connection. Then, we learned about the jumbled and clueless connection of the telco contractor as they apparently do not rely on a detailed schematic diagram to track the individual systems of the service area. They also did not even coordinate well with our telco provider to properly identify our service connection.

It turns out the service contractor employs a hit-or-miss physical search to locate a specific household’s fiber connection. Apparently, our line was not even located in the service box beside our house, but turned out to be connected on a different service box a couple of streets from where we live. Even after identifying our connection, it turned out that our line problem was connected to the main box.

The first team that replaced the main box just connected whatever lines to whatever port without properly checking if they were the right connecting ports. So they stopped there and claimed that since the system showed a signal from the main line, everything was fine, even as we continued to complain and point out that we had no internet, cable or phone service. Thus, the crew said, they had done their job and the problem must be our internal modem connection and routers.

My husband was having none of that argument and pressed for a more experienced crew. Thankfully, the contractor was able to send a team with a truly experienced technician who spent more than four hours working with our telco provider to pinpoint our service connection.

We thought everything would be fine with the signal: a strong download speed of 400+ Mbps. But as it turned out that perfect reconnection lasted only from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday morning.

Another crew arrived Wednesday from a different contractor to check and concluded that the problem was emanating from the main line which was handled by a different contractor. We then had to wait for the contractor to send a team to look into the matter. They were able to reconnect our service, but only for a couple of short hours because by nighttime, service had conked out again.

And so here I am, scrambling to get my connection back, and now missing my submission deadline.

We  learned that the contractor is among several independent contractors who each operate on different services. We don’t even know if they are licensed and properly certified to do the technical work. They do not wear identification cards and are unwilling to give their full names, only their first names and very reluctantly. They do not have any uniforms and work in generic blue long-sleeved t-shirts with a neon vest.

One technician outright refused to work at all. Of course, they will still report to our telco provider that they had completed the service ticket and collect their payment. However, clients like us are forced to repeatedly call our telco provider. Another service ticket is given, but the same crappy service is provided, for which the private contractors still get paid.

The sloppy and incompetent work of private contractors can, thus, ruin the reputation of an otherwise reliable telco operator. This is what is happening to my neighborhood right now. Some of my neighbors have been complaining regularly it seems.

In this day and age of digital technology, when remote work from home is now the norm, losing reliable internet, cable and telephone connection is a death knell, especially for a journalist.

And that is where the problem lies: government – particularly the Department of Information and Communications Technology – must implement a more stringent and professional licensing system for technical personnel who are properly trained and certified, and for contractors to have proper coordination with their telco companies to ensure that service is properly provided and coordinated.

How can the Philippines aspire to be a technical hub that can service global firms when Filipino technicians are not properly trained or certified, and local consumers are left to suffer and pay for expensive but unreliable services?

If the government also wants to attract foreign investors and participate in global schemes such as Pax Silica, it must first show that it can reliably and professionally provide efficient service through local telco operators.

Remember, there are foreign expatriates who live in the Philippines and they can give feedback about just how bad local telco services are in the country since they experience it in the local communities where they reside.

Our reputation as reliable service operators will spread through expats who suffer from bad service.

Otherwise, what would exist once again are two separate states – one for locals with  bad and inefficient systems, and for foreign investors, an area where the best and perhaps foreign-hired technicians and systems are efficient.

Kawawa naman ang Filipinos, paying for bad, expensive but inefficient service with no recourse.