DICT launches National Broadband Program Resiliency Route

by Richmond Mercurio – The Philippine Star, 28 Sep 2021

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has activated a supplemental infrastructure that will serve as a redundancy and protection loop connecting to international gateway access through Singapore.

The National Broadband Program Resiliency Route, launched by the agency yesterday, is designed to ensure continuity of internet connectivity in case the international cable connected to the US encounters troubles.

The DICT said it is also a solution that completes the National Broadband Program (NBP)’s loop by connecting the Philippines to Asia through Singapore, providing a boost to government internet connectivity in the busiest areas of the country, particularly Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao.

“Today your DICT launches the supplemental infrastructure or resiliency route for Phase 1 of the NBP as part of our ongoing efforts to future proof the program. It is our goal to make sure that the improvements we have made in the current administration will serve as leverage for the initiatives of our future leaders to further advance the national ICT agenda, which is basically connectivity,” DICT Secretary Gregorio Honasan said.

The DICT’s NBP serves as the blueprint for the deployment of broadband connectivity in the country aimed at providing fast, cheap, and reliable internet connectivity.

Complementing the NBP is the establishment of provincial broadband networks to be linked to the national backbone.

The first component of the NBP is a national fiber backbone that traverses and connects the islands of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao to cover the whole archipelago.

Component two is the set of cable landing stations connecting to the Luzon Bypass Infrastructure.

The DICT said the cable landing stations would serve as the NBP’s gateway to international connectivity, which may also be used to land more capacity for the network and open up the country to more ICT investments.

The third component, meanwhile, will focus on tower build up for areas where the installation of fiber optic cable may be challenging or time-intensive.

Lastly, the fourth component of the NBP will focus on fiber build to pick up capacities from the points of presence and distribute these to government offices of national government agencies, local government units, state universities and colleges, public schools, rural health units and public hospitals.

By next year, the agency said the government would be able to use the Phase 1 infrastructure of the NBP to access at least 100 gbps of internet connectivity.