IMPROVING the state of the Internet in the Philippines—described as slow, expensive and congested—will require an investment of roughly $150 million, or P7.7 billion, from the government over the course of President Durterte’s term, quite a costly Band-Aid solution, but is seen to also help reduce costs in the long run.
Eliseo M. Rio Jr., undersecretary at the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), likened the quality of the Internet in the Philippines to the traffic congestion along major streets in Metro Manila, noting that this is caused by heavy mobile-data usage despite the limited capacities of networks.
“The Philippine Internet is slow, expensive and congested,” he said. “It is because most of the Internet traffic is processed through mobile data, whose limited towers cannot accommodate high volumes of content.”
In fact, Rio said, nine of 10 Filipinos use mobile data for their Internet-related needs, hence, causing congestion in network facilities. The Philippines has a shortfall of about 50,000 cell sites, as, according to the government official, the country needs roughly 67,000 cell sites to provide better quality Internet.
To decongest the limited number of cell sites and towers for mobile data across the Philippines, Rio said more and more people should subscribe to fixed line or wired data services.
“Only 27 percent of our homes and establishment are connected via wired Internet, when it should be 100 percent, or at least more than 80 percent,” Rio said.
But because the rollout of the service is limited by the length of fiber-optic cables around the country, the official said the government will invest in providing free Wi-fi services over a period of roughly five years.
“We will make more access points across the country. We are targeting around 5,000 access points this year, and, based on our budget, will have another 10,000 for next year, and that will go on. Before the end of the term of President Duterte, we will have around 250,000 access points,” he said.
To do this, Rio said the government will subscribe to local Internet service providers for the first three years, connecting the service to its core network—similar to an Internet exchange—to weed out inappropriate usage.
During this period, the government will also build cellular towers and deploy fiber-optic cables in different points in the Philippines, especially in the countryside.
Each deployment of the access point would cost the government an initial investment of $600. The subscription for each will have a ceiling price of P12,000 per megabit per month. The access point has to have a capacity of 100 users, enjoying a speed of at least 4 Mbps.
“For the free Wi-fi service, we will be initially using existing lines of telcos and ISPs—that’s for three years. We also estimate that, within that period, the National Broadband Network will be constructed. So, by three years, we can migrate to our own network,” Rio said.
Less than two months back, Duterte signed the free Internet access law, or Republic Act 10929, which provides for the deployment of free Internet access in public spaces, such as schools, transportation terminals, plazas, hospitals and government offices.
The law is expected to help bridge the so-called digital divide, which is basically a gap between those who have access to the Internet and those who don’t. Such a divide has resulted in striking gaps in three areas: education, information and communication and finance.
“The free Wi-fi program is a short- term solution to decongest the limited number of towers by building up access points through the government’s free Wi-fi law,” Rio said.
1 comment
That’s good. However, if this is all to access Facebook then it’s not very productive use.
I would suggest you use that money to improve government services and make them accessible via internet so that taxpayers can transact things like paying taxes, getting permits all via internet.
That way, we reduce traffic by lesser people driving, riding about metro manila going through all government offices just to get their business done. That will also reduce corruption because you don’t have to deal with cash.