Marcos promises boost in internet connectivity with common towers

PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. vowed during his third State of the Nation Address (Sona) to harness, together with the government’s partners from the private sector, the concept of common towers in a bid to enhance internet connectivity across the country.

Marcos said that as of 2022, only 77 percent or 20.6 million households were connected to the internet.

“This is much too low,” Marcos said.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology earlier said that mandating infrastructure sharing and the implementation of a common tower policy are expected to greatly improve mobile telecommunication services, internet reliability and efficiency, and provide these at a reasonable cost to consumers.

The President maintained that the country is progressing in upgrading both in capacity and connectivity, noting that almost 10 million unique user devices are benefitting from free internet in over 13,000 areas across the country, which includes schools and remote communities.

Marcos noted the completion of phase 1 of the National Fiber Backbone, which goes from Baler to Laoag to Metro Manila.

The project aims to give communities sufficient capacity in terms of bandwidth.

Phases 2 and 3 of the project, which connects Metro Manila to Southern Luzon, have already begun early this year and are expected to be completed by 2026.

“Bigger and faster IT infrastructure requires stronger and more impervious cyber-defense. Our recently launched National Cybersecurity Plan lays down the blueprint for us to safeguard our systems against cyberattacks,” said Marcos.

“With these said, I have directed the agencies concerned to ensure that the speed and quality of our IT development always mirror the pace and trajectory of our economic aspirations,” he added. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)