Fiber backbone connecting PH to Los Angeles to be up by March — DICT

The National Fiber Backbone (NFB) cable stations of the Philippines connecting to those in Los Angeles, California are set to be up and running by March, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said Thursday.

According to DICT undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy, the fiber cables have already been laid out, as part of the agency's earlier announced Luzon Bypass Infrastructure (LBI) project in partnership with Meta, the parent firm of Facebook.

"Continuing po 'yung ating mga infrastructure build upang palawakin ang sakop ng Internet connectivity, pati na rin ang mobile connectivity sa buong bansa," he said in a televised briefing.

(Our infrastructure build is continuing to widen Internet connectivity and mobile connectivity across the whole country.)

The link-up will connect Los Angeles with cable landing stations in San Fernando, La Union, providing an initial 100 gigabits per second (Gbps). Government agencies stand to benefit from the ICT project, Dy said.

He added that the domestic route of the LBI—a 250-kilometer fiber line connecting landing stations in Baler, Aurora to Poro Point, La Union—has already been completed. The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is the state-run firm which built the cable network.

The DICT earlier said it would boost government Internet capacity by 50 times.

In the same briefing, Dy said the agency has put over 13,400 free WiFi sites across the country, located mainly in barangay halls or public elementary schools.

The DICT ended 2023 with some 25,000 sites, which it plans to double this year.

In August 2017, former President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act 10929, also known as the Free Internet Access in Public Places Act, mandating that the government should provide free Internet access in public spaces across the country. — VDV, GMA Integrated News