Netizens urged to help check internet speed through app

TACLOBAN CITY, Dec. 28  -- The region’s business group has encouraged the public to use a mobile application to help monitor the status of internet connectivity in Eastern Visayas.

Oliver Cam, private sector representative to the Regional Development Council (RDC), said they had been seeking support from different sectors to raise public awareness on the benefits of using project BASS (bandwidth and signal strength).

“This is a crowd source monitoring tool that will measure the signal strength of a mobile carrier in an area and compile the local data available that would help improve the internet speed in the country,” Cam said on Thursday.

The project’s primary aim is to inform the telecommunication companies which areas need improvement, especially with the internet speed, which has been a big issue in the country, the businessman added.

“If the information and communication technology infrastructure in the country will improve, it will reduce poverty incidence since internet speed has a direct impact to poverty based on studies conducted from 2007 to 2010 in four Eastern African countries,” Cam said.

The concept of the use of the Project BASS application is based on the principle of Hawthorne Effect which is the tendency to perform or perceive differently when one knows they are being observed, Cam said.

“Using this principle will help the telecommunication companies to take steps on improving their services as they are aware that their performance are being observed and measured,” he told the Philippine News Agency.

He also encouraged the local government units and government agencies to use the application to further improve their projects.

The developers are working for the Windows version of the app so that installation will be available for laptops and desktop computers.

The project will be presented in future meetings of RDC and sectoral committees, added Cam . (SQM/with reports from Jeraldyn Bagasin, OJT/PNA)