PH Government, Facebook To Team Up For Ultra-fast Broadband

PH Government, Facebook To Team Up For Ultra-fast Broadband

It makes the government a virtual third telco

Looks like we’re getting a third telco after all, and no, it’s not some international telco. The government, in the form of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). The two government agencies has signed an agreement with Facebook for the Strategic Engagement and Collaboration to Undertake a Reliable and Efficient Government Internet (SECURE GovNet) project.

Dubbed the Luzon Bypass Infrastructure, the project involves two cable landing stations that will be connected by a 250-km long cable network corridor.

“The cable will provide direct connections from Luzon to internet hubs in the United States and Asia,” DICT Officer-in-Charge Eliseo Rio Jr said.

Since Facebook will be the first party to utilize the infrastructure, they will be the one to build and operate the submarine cable system that will land in the cable stations on the east and west coasts of Luzon.

In exchange, Facebook will be providing the PH government with spectrum that’s equivalent to at least two million megabits per second, according to Rio.

That’s a hell of a lot of capacity, and is almost equal to the current combined capacity of Globe Telecom and PLDT, making the government a virtual third player in the telco industry. With that much bandwidth, the DICT would have an easier time hitting President Duterte’s ambitious the National Broadband Plan.

The project is expected to be finished and operational by 2019.

National Broadband Program OK’d By Duterte

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