BROADBAND or high-speed Internet access service revenues are expected to propel the income growth of telecommunication firms in the years ahead, more than cellular service revenues, Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago, chairman of the House committee on information and communications technology, said Tuesday.

       “Broadband is definitely the next battleground for telecommunication service providers,” said Santiago, former chief of the National Telecommunications Commission.

       The term “broadband” became popular as a result of the National Broadband Network Project scandal that forced the resignation of Benjamin Abalos as chairman of the Commission on Elections, and eventually led to the ouster of Jose de Venecia Jr. as House Speaker.

De Venecia’s son and namesake was among the project bidders.

       The government had sought to build the $329-million network to provide high-speed Internet connectivity to all state agencies, all the way down to the barangay level. Malacañang has since cancelled the tainted project.

       “Broadband users of major telecommunication firms are growing rapidly, at rates of 50 to almost 100 percent year-on-year, whereas they are increasing mobile telephone subscribers at annual rates of only 23 to 25 percent,” Santiago said.

       “The mobile telephone market is maturing fast, with around 62.5 million users, or more than 70 percent of the population. The broadband market is just about to explode and take off. Our extremely low Internet penetration rate implies that the potential for broadband growth is massive,” he said.

       “We see falling broadband user rates as well as declining personal computer prices driving broadband growth in the months ahead,” Santiago said.

       The Philippines has the second lowest Internet penetration rate in Asia, with only 15.4 percent of the population having web access. The only Asian country with a lower Internet penetration rate is Indonesia, at 8.4 percent, according to Internet World Statistics.

       South Korea has an Internet penetration rate of 70 percent; Singapore, 66.3 percent; Malaysia, 59 percent; Vietnam, 22.4 percent; Thailand, 20.5 percent; and China 15.8 percent.

       Internet World estimates the number of Internet users in the Philippines at 14 million as of end 2007, almost double the 7.8 million that the country had at the end 2005, and seven times the two million at end 2000.