THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Thursday said it is bent on completing this year Phases 2 and 3 of the government’s National Fiber Backbone (NFB) Project in a bid to provide faster, more reliable and more secure internet service across the country.
In a public briefing, DICT Assistant Secretary and spokesman Renato Paraiso said the agency is scheduled to roll out the two phases by March or early in the second quarter.
“What the government plans, through the DICT led by Secretary Ivan Uy, is to complete the connectivity from the farthest north to the last province in the south. This is where the middle and last miles of the government will be connected to the National Fiber Backbone so we can provide service to local governments, especially to those we call Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas. This is in response to the call of the President that no one will be left behind in the digital divide,” Paraiso said.
The DICT previously noted that its Free Public Internet Access Program has put up 6,929 sites across the country, serving 1,401 cities and municipalities.
Included are the 3,040 sites in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas as of June 2024.
Uy noted that the agency has wrapped up Phase 1 of the project — a 1,245-kilometer stretch of technical infrastructure from Laoag, Ilocos Norte, to the DICT offices in Quezon City.
Phases 2 and 3 will boost the internet connectivity service capacity to various provinces, government offices and data centers in southern Luzon and parts of Visayas and Mindanao.
The DICT noted that Phases 4 up to 6 may be sped up because the $287 million loan from the World Bank has been approved. The loan covers remote areas in Mindanao.
With the DICT already providing free internet to government offices and the public through its “Broadband ng Masa” project, Paraiso said internet service providers can offer more bandwidth to private subscribers.
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