DICT to tap 3rd party firm for National Broadband Plan

MANILA, Philippines -  The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is planning to tap a third party firm and the assistance of the US and Japanese governments for the feasibility study to be undertaken for the implementation of the National Broadband Plan (NBP). 

DICT Undersecretary Denis Villorente said at the formal launch of the NBP and other priority projects held yesterday there is a need to conduct a feasibility study to flesh out the details of the NBP which was approved by President Duterte last March. 

The NBP serves as the blueprint for broadband infrastructure to interconnect government offices in the country, as well as to enable internet access of individuals in unserved and underserved areas.

While the DICT is coming up with its own study, he said the department intends to get the services of a third party firm to conduct the feasibility study.

“It’s actually more credible if it comes from a third party, right? But in the meantime that you don’t have that, we’re also doing things internally. So hopefully, once we have somebody to do the feasibility study, we can provide them those inputs and we can accelerate,” he said. 

The DICT is currently finalizing the terms of reference for the procurement process of a third party firm for the feasibility study. 

“In parallel, we are trying to see how we can accelerate also the formulation of the feasibility study by talking to other potential sponsors to do the feasibility study like with the US government and Japanese government,” he said. 

Earlier, the DICT said about P77.9 billion in investment would be needed for the NBP. 

Villorente said the amount of investment needed may go down as the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has expressed willingness to allow the government to use the existing fiber optics network in the transmission grid for the implementation of the NBP. 

He said an agreement would need to be forged with NGCP for that purpose. 

DICT Secretary Rodolfo Salalima said the department wants to sign a memorandum of understanding to formalize the agreement with the NGCP this year.