MANILA, Philippines — Third telecommunications player Dito Telecommunity has forged an agreement with the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) to provide municipalities with their own dedicated fiber network.
Through the agreement, Dito said different municipalities of the country and the public areas of the respective barangays, including schools and other key institutions, would be connected through a dedicated nationwide fiber network which would enable them to deliver fast and reliable services to their constituents.
Dito chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said the agreement allows each and every municipality to provide beyond the standard free Wi-Fi hotspots.
“The effort significantly affords Filipinos even in the smallest of municipalities the
advanced applications that can be driven through the private network such as direct video for conferencing or security, public broadcast exchange, e-Education, e-Medicine, e-Permits, Internet of Things, IP PBX, VoIP; among other things, to better live-up to the promise of delivering the kind of connectedness and community that Filipinos long for, ” he said.
Tamano said mayors have committed to ensure ease of doing business in their respective municipalities to drive the extensive rollout of Dito’s network.
“In exchange, Dito will enable better collaboration and communication in the
future through connectivity for all,” he said.
LMP president and Narvacan, Ilocos Sur Mayor Luis “Chavit” Singson, for his part, said the move would make the country’s municipalities “future-ready.”
“In other developed countries, governments already have their own private networks, and in the Philippines there have been several attempts,” Singson said.
“But now with this Dito-supported initiative, and the support of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, and the Office of the President, our municipalities would be connected real time through its own private network,” he said.
According to Singson, many of the country’s municipalities have limited internet services because their population is lower than the others.
However, with the agreement with Dito, he said all the municipalities, including those in out of reach places, stand to benefit through a dedicated fiber line.
“We are on the verge of something big, benefiting especially those in out-of-reach places like the farmers, the workers at the grassroots level who can now offer their local produce and services more immediately to the rest of the country or to the world, boosting greatly local economy up to the municipality level,” Singson said.