Inanunsyo ni Pangulong Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. nitong Martes, Pebrero 21, na magkakaroon ng mas mabilis na internet connection ang Pilipinas sa hinaharap dahil sa magiging konektado ito sa submarine fiber optic cable mula sa United States.
Sinabi ito ng pangulo matapos siyang makipagpulong kina Converge founder at CEO Dennis Anthony Uy at proponent partner nitong si Thomas Pang Thieng Hwi, CEO at executive director ng Keppel Telecommunications and Transportation Inc. sa Malacañang.
“I just finished a meeting with the Converge group who have tied up with the Keppel group to put in a submarine fiber optic cable from the west coast of the United States. It will connect to the Philippines and it will also connect to Singapore and Indonesia, and this will again give us bigger bandwidth,” ani Marcos.
“This will give us a better communication system when it comes to all the online services that we are using globally. So madadagdagan ‘yung ating bandwidth at magiging mas mabilis ‘yung ating internet,” dagdag niya.
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Ang nasabing naging usapan umano ay bunga ng pagpunta ni Marcos kamakailan sa Singapore.
“Habang nanunuod kami ng karera, pinag-usapan namin ito. Kaya’t ngayon, nabuo na at ilalagay nila, isasama nila ang Pilipinas doon sa kanilang mahabang fiber optic na kable na galing sa California, galing sa West Coast ng Amerika, hanggang Pilipinas, hanggang Singapore, hanggang Indonesia,” saad ni Marcos.
Ayon sa Presidential Communications Office (PCO), ang Bifrost Cable System Project ay ang first subsea cable system sa buong mundo na direktang kinokonekta ang Singapore sa West Coast ng North Amerika, at dumadaan sa Indonesia, Pilipinas at Guam.
Magiging “largest high-speed transmission cable” din umano ang Bifrost Cable System sa buong Pacific Ocean.
Inaasahan daw na matatapos ang nasabing 15,000-kilometer system sa 2024.
“To date, the national government’s free Wi-Fi program BroadBand ng Masa (BBM), through the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), has established a total of 4,385 operational live sites in 73 provinces and Metro Manila, across 601 cities and municipalities all around the country,” PCO.
“These include those in the geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs) like the provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi (BaSuLTa), and the Pag-asa Island of the Kalayaan Group of Islands in the province of Palawan. It has approximately 4 million unique users nationwide,” dagdag nito.
Sa tala ng Ookla Speedtest Global Index nitong Enero 2023, naging pang-82 ang Pilipinas sa 142 mga bansa pagdating sa bilis ng mobile internet, habang pang-42 naman ito sa 180 bansa pagdating sa bilis ng fixed broadband media.
