(U) Compared to its neighboring Asian countries, the Philippines is remarkably under-equipped in terms of scarcity of satellite and teleport ownership. They own no satellites and only have four commercial satellite teleports. A teleport is a ground-based satellite uplink facility designed to communicate continuously, with high quality, with orbiting satellites.1 For comparison, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia have thirteen, two , eight and six satellites.2 These countries, likewise, have more teleports, which allows them to have a greater capacity to provide higher quality communications to their populations. This is counterintuitive given that, in terms of population density, the Philippines is larger than these countries except Indonesia.3(U) The largest telecommunications company in the Philippines is Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT). Although they are the main telecommunications entity in the country, they do not operate teleports although they offer satellite communications services through subsidiaries. Their satellite services come from the use of satellite phones, which do not use teleports, and the use of VSAT terminals linked to teleports outside the Philippines.4,5 Satellite television also represents a particularly high percentage important to their activities, but it also does not require the use of a teleport in the traditional sense of a two-way communications link.6 Their television services are simply broadcasts, meaning that customers do not transmit response, they simply receive a television signal. (U) There are four commercial teleports that reside in the Philippines, the largest of which is the Philippine Communications Satellite Corporation (PHILCOMSAT) located in Makati City, Me...... middle of paper ......classified; http://www.pldt.com/about-us/pldt%27s-business5. Smart(PLDT Subsidiary); Overview of satellites; April 14, 2004; Unclassified; http://www1.smart.com.ph/Satellite/smart-sat/overview6. Cignal (PLDT subsidiary); Cignal television cable; April 14, 2014; Unclassified; http://www.cignaltvcable.com/7. PHILSATCOM; Satellite services; April 14, 2014; Unclassified; http://www.philcomsat.com.ph/prod_bs.html8. Asia Broadcast Satellite, Satellite Fleet, April 14, 2014: unclassified; http://www.absatellite.net/satellite-fleet/?sat=abs19. Bloomberg Business Week; TBGI; April 14, 2014: Uncategorized: http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=TBGI:PM10. TBGI; The Satellite; April 14, 2014; Unclassified; http://www.tbgi.net.ph/technology.html11. VAB; Philippines Domestic Satellite; April 14, 2014; Unclassified; http://gva-int.com/project1.php