The Department of Information and Communications Technology sees the country to rank third in Southeast Asia in terms of Internet connectivity four years from now.

On the second day of the Build Better Infrastructure Forum in New Clark City, Tarlac, Information and Communications Secretary Ivan John Uy stressed that the Philippines, to date, is number 6 in terms of Internet penetration and speed from the sluggish standing of 9^th among Southeast Asian peers.

“We were able to do this in less than two years and we deemed that if we continue in this trajectory of 14 percent increase in our index in the past years, I am hoping that in 2028, we could be, probably, in the top 3 in ASEAN, assuming that we continue to get funding,” he maintained.

Uy said that as the ASEAN peers are not resting on their laurels to be the best in terms of digitization, the Philippine government will not also stop getting huge amounts of investments to further improve Internet connectivity.

“We need to double what we are putting because we are the ones who want to catch up,” Uy said.

In the 2024 edition report of the ICT Development Index of the United Nations specialized agency’ International Telecommunication Union, the Philippines scored 74.4 out of 100 nations

ICT Development Index measures the progress of information and communication technology in 170 economies by measuring the level of universal and meaningful connectivity.

The Philippines’ score jumped by 14 percent year-on-year but remained below the world average score of 74.8 and was the fifth-lowest in the East and Southeast Asia region.

Phl’s strides

In his presentation during the forum, Uy said the country has an Internet penetration of 73.6 percent overall, as the DICT has implemented the Common Tower Policy, enabling third-party providers to expedite infrastructure setup, potentially reducing the timeline from 10 years to just three.

The Broadband ng Masa Program, which establishes the national fiber backbone and middle-mile connectivity, and the Free Public Internet Access Program provide free, secure Internet at 13,462 sites nationwide, according to Uy.

Meanwhile, the Free Public Internet Access Program of the government has already established 13,462 access points in 6,929 locations, serving 1,401 cities and municipalities across the Philippines, including 3,040 sites in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged areas as of 30 June 2024.

Further, he said that Phase 1 of the National Fiber Backbone has already spanned 1,245 kilometers from Laoag, Ilocos Norte to Quezon City linking 14 provinces.

On the other hand, the National Fiber Backbone’s additional phases will deploy 6,300 km of fiber optic cable and wireless technology.

Connectivity that drives economic growth posted a 10 percent increase in internet penetration, translating to 1.4 percent GDP Growth; $6.07 billion in economic growth is anticipated by 2028,” Uy said.

The DICT secretary stressed that the Marcos Jr. administration is aiming to produce 9.8 million users to benefit from free internet services in 125,000 sites nationwide by 2028.