NGCP sees faster internet speed with ‘broadband deal’

Published June 12, 2018, 10:00 PM By Myrna M. Velasco

https://business.mb.com.ph/2018/06/12/ngcp-sees-faster-internet-speed-with-broadband-deal/

Filipinos’ edginess over slow and patchy internet connection has been promised to be finally over soon, with the national broadband project that will be concretized via the tripartite agreement inked by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

NGCP, which is currently the operator of the country’s transmission facilities, has expressed keenness over “experiencing not only the improvement of internet speed but also free Wi-Fi access in public areas.” Its embedded dark fiber optics in the power transmission network will be utilized in the government-underpinned free internet connectivity.

Such drift of social benefit to the Filipinos, the transmission firm emphasized has been its guiding path and motivation to “welcome this opportunity to take part in the National Broadband Program of the government to address the longstanding issue of internet connection quality in the Philippines.”

The public places to be covered by free Wi-Fi access shall include: parks, plazas, public libraries, schools, government offices, hospitals, train stations, airports and seaports nationwide.

NGCP thus emphasized that it would want to see this project gaining momentum and success “in the next few months.”

With the use of the fiber optic cable lines, it is widely perceived that internet connection in the country will greatly improve – not just in terms of speed but also on its reach to even the remotest distances, especially in the marginalized communities.

As indicated by DICT, which is the project’s implementing agency, the ‘free Wi-Fi’ component of the country’s broadband program will likely gain traction next year – it being the milestone kick-off point as cast in the project’s blueprint.

The initial phase of the project, according to TransCo President Melvin A. Matibag, treads on the free internet use of government “and for DICT to roll out its mandate in relation to the Free Wi-Fi Law.”

Following the signing of the project’s tripartite memorandum of agreement, Matibag noted that such “will also help hasten the processing of licenses, permits, clearances and other government issuances nationwide.”

With the hurdles in negotiations finally sorted out in the process leading to the broadband deal, the TransCo chief executive reckoned that “this is a fine example of government and the private sector joining hands to spur progress and development in the countryside.”

Beyond the “free Wi-Fi phase” of the broadband program, the third phase delves on commercial offer to households, albeit at more affordable rates compared to the incumbents – although at that stage, it will already involve the entry of a third telecommunications industry player.