DICT to bring satellite internet to 85 IP towns

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is spending nearly P29 million for the installation of satellite internet in 85 indigenous peoples (IP) towns.

The DICT, in an invitation to bid, is looking for an internet service provider (ISP) to take on the Provision of Internet Access via Low Earth Orbit Satellites in IP Communities.

The project, costing P28.92 million, will set up internet access in 85 towns nationwide, more than half of which are in Mindanao.

The DICT said the ISP must be ready to activate the satellite internet within 60 days from receipt of notice to proceed. The coverage will last for at least 360 days.

The agency requires the internet service to turn in a download bandwidth of 100 to 220 Mbps per location. Apart from this, the ISP must also sustain an upload speed at 10 to 25 Mbps.

The project mandates the satellite internet to have a data allocation of above two TB monthly, and that its latency, or the amount of time for data transfer, be lower than 60 milliseconds.

The DICT is sourcing the capital from the special account in the general fund for the Free Public Internet Access Program, also known as the Free WiFi for All.

The agency will conduct a pre-bid conference on Aug. 24 to answer queries from prospective bidders, and it will close the submissions and open the offers on Sept. 7.

Further, the DICT is beefing up e-governance projects in Mindanao, bringing digital registration in SOCCSKSARGEN and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The program, called Electronic Local Government System (eLGU), seeks to simplify permitting processes for ease of doing business.

To date, the platform has added 63 local government units in the two regions. Between 2023 and 2025, eLGU processed 114,259 permits in SOCCSKSARGEN, raising P1.79 billion in revenues, and 7,931 filings in BARMM, leading to P77.7 million in collections for the region.

eLGU compiles all business permit assessment, payments and release in one platform, reducing the need for face-to-face transactions that are exposed to the fixer culture.

In Kidapawan City for example, business tax revenues ballooned to P102.67 million in 2022 under its digital permitting regime, from P83.93 million in 2021 when procedures were done manually.