THE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) reiterated on Thursday its willingness to partner with the government in a plan to tap the former’s vast cable network in delivering high-speed Internet service.
“Talks began even during the past administration. As early as 2012, we were already exploring the broadband potential of our facilities with the Department of Science and Technology [DOST], which was the lead agency for the project at that time,” said Henry Sy Jr., NGCP president.
Sy said the discussions continue under the current administration. “Talks have been ongoing for the past six months. We’ve given the DICT [Department of Information and Communications Technology] and [the] DOE [Department of Energy] all the information they need to put this project forward. We’ve informed them that the current transmission facility will be able to support the broadband network envisioned by the government. NGCP’s wide fiber-optic network and related resources are sufficient to support this priority program under President Duterte’s administration. We are just waiting for details from our government partners,” Sy said.
As the country’s sole power-transmission operator, the NGCP has thousands of existing fiber optic facilities that run from Luzon to Mindanao for internal communication purposes. The NGCP said it is ready to lease these fiber-optic lines to be utilized by the government in its efforts to upgrade the country’s Internet speed and, thus, shorten the amount of time needed to complete the project. Despite ranking last place for average connection speed in the Asia-Pacific region on Akamai’s fourth-quarter report, the Philippines has shown promising improvements with a 44-percent increase from the previous year.
“NGCP fully supports the government’s efforts in creating a national broadband plan for the Philippines. We look forward to seeing the DICT’s plans come into fruition as having a stable Internet connection is now a very important productivity tool, and keeps the whole country connected,” the company said.
The grid operator, meanwhile, denied allegations raised by the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) that “there are communication facilities which are installed in the transmission building without [Transco’s] permission,” and that the same constitutes a violation of its concession agreement.
“Our concession agreement specifically allows us to develop the transmission facility and engage in any business which maximizes the utilization of the transmission assets,” Sy said. “Any statement to the contrary is unfair and does not reflect the true state of affairs.”
The NGCP is a Filipino-led, privately owned company in charge of operating, maintaining and developing the country’s power grid, led by majority shareholders Henry Sy Jr. and Robert Coyiuto Jr.