DICT launches redundant system for national broadband network
THE DEPARTMENT of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) launched Monday a redundant system designed to make the first phase of the government’s National Broadband Program (NBP) more resilient.
“Today, your Department of Information and Communications Technology launches the supplemental infrastructure or resiliency route for Phase 1 of the NBP as part of our ongoing efforts to future-proof the program,” DICT Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II said during the ceremony.
“Providing fast, reliable, and affordable digital connectivity to our country’s centers of economic activity is central to our efforts to rebuild the economy, which has been severely affected by the pandemic,” he said.
The department said the so-called “resiliency route” is supplemental infrastructure that will serve as a redundancy and protection loop connecting to the international gateway access through Singapore.
“This will play an integral role in the continuity of internet connectivity to the busiest areas of Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao, and soon every Filipino, bridging the digital divide,” the DICT said in a statement.
The NBP seeks to trigger policy and regulatory reforms, investing in broadband infrastructure such as the national fiber backbone, and stimulate broadband demand.
The national fiber backbone component has three phases: lighting up fiber on the national electrical transmission system, constructing domestic submarine fiber to connect Luzon to the Visayas and the Visayas to Mindanao, and completing the national fiber backbone with multiple loops. — Arjay L. Balinbin
