BIZ BUZZ: Jimenez twits PLDT’s foes
If there’s one thing Menardo “Butch” Jimenez Jr. seems to enjoy almost as much as competition itself, it’s talking about it.
Because as competition in the Philippine telco industry intensifies, the outspoken PLDT executive has made a habit of taking playful—and often pointed—swipes at rivals, including those that have yet to actually enter the market.
Take the latest quarterly rankings from internet analytics firm SpeedGeo.
Converge ICT Solutions Inc., led by tycoon Dennis Uy, proudly touted the report after topping the broadband speed race with average download speeds of 129.7 Mbps.
That put it ahead of PLDT at 120.7 Mbps and Globe Telecom Inc. at 108.9 Mbps.
But while Converge celebrated speed, PLDT zeroed in on another metric altogether: latency, But while Converge celebrated speed, PLDT zeroed in on another metric altogether: latency, or the time it takes for data to travel from your device to a server and back.
The report showed PLDT posting the country’s lowest latency at 24 milliseconds, thus making PLDT more reliable, a fact Butch wasted no time highlighting.
“We’re thankful that they admitted through the SpeedGeo report we’ve been the most reliable this past year,” he said. “They sent out data that shows PLDT has the lowest latency in the country. We’ll take it.”
PLDT doubled down in its statement, saying its reaction to the rankings was simply “gratitude.”
And this wasn’t the first time Butch found an opening to needle rivals.
During a briefing earlier this month, Butch also took aim at direct-to-cell satellite technology after being asked whether PLDT was worried about foreign satellite players entering the Philippine market.
“If you’ve tested it, or if you’ve tried it, it’s really a bad customer experience. Like, really bad,” Butch said. “I don’t know who’s going to pay for that.”
“What are you going to use satellite for? Where are you going to go? Who goes to mountaintops every day and needs satellite?”
Naturally, the conversation drifted toward Globe and its partnership with Starlink, the satellite internet venture backed by Elon Musk.
Globe plans to roll this out in June with offers starting at P99 for 30 days and P299 for 90 days.
“You should try it. I don’t know who’s offering it now,” Butch said. “I think Globe is offering it. Try it. Let’s see how good it is.”
To be fair, Butch acknowledged that satellite technology could eventually improve, and perhaps become a legitimate threat to PLDT’s turf.
For now, though, this tough-talking telco veteran appears to be enjoying the industry’s intensifying rivalry as much as anyone.
“By all means, come to the Philippines and let’s slug it out, guys!” he said.
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