Marcos greenlights $288-M digital project to boost broadband connectivity
Marcos greenlights $288-M digital project to boost broadband connectivity
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. green-lighted the proposed multimillion dollar project aimed at boosting broadband connectivity across the country.
In a briefing in Malacañang on Wednesday, Information and Communication Technology Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian C. Dy bared that the Chief Executive gave his go ahead for the $288-million Philippine Digital Infrastructure Project (PDIP) during the 18th board meeting of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) earlier this week.
The project, to be funded through a loan from the World Bank, aims to ramp up broadband connectivity throughout the Philippines, particularly in remote areas, and strengthen cybersecurity in the country.
"It is the largest and actually the first of its kind in the Philippines for a loan for digital infrastructure," Dy said. "Remember that in April, the President already launched the first phase of this which goes from Baler to Laoag, then to Metro Manila."
"This year, we are going to finish phase 2 and three of the national fiber backbone which connects Metro Manila to Southern Luzon. With this loan, we should be able to get submarine cables across Visayas and then connect it to Mindanao; it's a domestic submarine," he added.
On top of that, they should be able to also provide 772 free Wi-Fi sites concentrating on Mindanao in Regions XI and XIII, Dy added.
"We would like to note that according to our research, for every 10 percent increase in internet penetration rate, it constitutes approximately a 1.38 percent increase in our Gross Domestic Product and that is the reason why this project is very important," the DICT official said.
"The reason why we're targeting regions in Mindanao is because even though the entire country has an internet penetration rate of 73.6 percent, approximately 86 million Filipinos have access to internet – this disparity is larger in Mindanao where in some regions especially Region XIII, the internet penetration rate is lower than 17 percent. So, that's really the target of this development fund. It's a development program," he added.
The DICT, Dy further noted, is looking to complete the project by 2028.
"Even though we'll complete it in 2028, the entire project is a 10-year project. So progressively, from 2025 to 2035, the entire free Wi-Fi sites that we will be building will be sustainable," Dy said.