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Nat’l broadband plan to boost internet speed: solons
![WiFi](https://canadianinquirer.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/WiFi-scaled.jpg)
House Speaker Martin Romualdez on Monday said internet is a critical social service nowadays and “it is deeply entrenched in the way we live.” (File Photo: Dreamlike Street/Unsplash)
MANILA – The country’s internet speed will go up a notch higher next year once the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) begins to implement its National Broadband Plan (NBP) that has been allocated PHP1.5 billion under the proposed 2023 national budget.
House Speaker Martin Romualdez on Monday said internet is a critical social service nowadays and “it is deeply entrenched in the way we live.”
He said the allocation for the NBP is part of the PHP77-billion institutional amendments made by the lower chamber to augment the budget for education, health, transportation and other critical social services.
“We use the internet for education, for delivering and availing social services, for our businesses, and for almost every facet of our lives,” Romualdez said in a news release.
Meanwhile, Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, said the PHP1.5 billion will go a long way in jumpstarting the NBP program that is envisioned to provide the backbone in providing internet to all government agencies nationwide.
“At alam naman natin na maraming lugar pa rin sa ating bansa ang hindi naaabot ng internet connection, lalo na ‘yung malalayong lugar (And we know that there are many places in the country that could not be reached by internet connection, especially those far flung areas). And we can now use the bandwidth given by Facebook once the DICT conducts the rollout of national broadband infrastructure, which will now be finally funded,” Co said.
He was referring to an earlier agreement forged by DICT, Facebook, and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority in which Facebook agreed to provide the Philippine government with spectrum equivalent to at least 2 million megabits per second (Mbps) once the internet infrastructure has been established. (with reports from Zaldy De Layola/PNA)