THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is set to roll out this year 6,000 very-small-aperture terminals (VSATs), two-way satellite ground stations, in underserved and unserved areas in the country to bridge the so-called digital divide.
“This is the biggest rollout of VSATs in our history,” Eliseo Rio, DICT undersecretary, adding the VSATs will connect people to the internet through the government’s Free Wifi program in partnership with the United Nations Development Program.
Rio said the DICT has taken great strides in bridging the digital divide, in response to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report on the COVID-19 crisis which stressed the need to bridge digital divides to allow more countries to take advantage of digitalization.
Aside from the VSAT rollout, Rio said the DICT has attracted common towers providers and passive telecommunication infrastructure providers to roll out cell sites and fiber optic cables to areas not reached by commercial telcos.
“These providers committed a huge amount of investments to the Board of Investments making the information communication technology (ICT) sector, together with a new major telco player, the biggest investment contributor in 2019, almost equal to the contribution of all other sectors combined. It was because of the ICT sector for the first time in our history, committed investments to BOI breached the P1 trillion mark in 2019.” Rio said in a Facebook post.
The DICT added internet connectivity at homes has significantly improved compared to two to three years ago.
“Had this COVID-19 crisis happened two or three years ago, with almost everyone staying at home connected to the internet, our telecom infrastructure would not be able to handle the traffic as it is handling it now. This pandemic emergency has focused the whole world to ICT solutions just as three years ago.” Rio said.
The UNCTAD report titled “COVID-19 Crisis accentuating the need to bridge digital divides “ said around the world, workers have been asked to work from home and replace physical meetings with online video conferencing and messaging. The demand for Microsoft Teams, Skype, Cisco’s Webex and Zoom has surged.
Digitalization under a lockdown situation is allowing telemedicine, telework and online education, enabling shopping online as well as generating more data on the expansion of the virus and helping information exchanges for research.
The UNCTAD report said social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and WeChat are increasingly used as sources of information on the crisis and as a way of staying in touch with relatives, friends and colleagues when physical meeting become restricted.
“On the downside, while social networks are very useful for information exchange, they are also the source of misinformation in the form of ” fake news” It is important that digital platforms step up to avoid that what World Health Organization (WHO) has qualified as “infodemic”adds to this crisis” the report said.
Another area that has seen a spike in demand is movie streaming, putting pressure on the broadband network of cities and countries. As cinemas and theatres close under government orders in several countries, Netflix, HBO, YouTube and other streaming services are gaining a new audience. School closures may have added to growing demand in this domain, as children and youth spend more time at home.
“Despite the rapid uptake of digital technologies, significant divides remain, both between and within counties. The least developed countries (LDCs) are the most vulnerable to the human and economic consequences of the pandemic, and they also lag behind the most in digital readiness. Only one in five people in LDCs use the internet and in most development counties well below 5 percent of the population currently buy goods or services online.” UNCTAD report said.
