Benguet to use global satellite in case of power failure in May polls

La Trinidad, Benguet , Philippines – A power outage during the May polls, is no problem for Benguet.

A global satellite will be used to transmit results.

The Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) is a global Satellite Internet Network with telephony using portable terminals will be used by the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic if transmission signals will get hard to come by.

Smartmatic regional coordinator Mavic Madayag said, “As of now Comelec has not advised us on how many BGAN machines we will use for the province.”

The province has been included in the six most remote areas in the country with a darn need for BGAN machines to transmit election results.

Benguet, along with Abra, Samar, Leyte, Zamboanga and Tawi-Tawi have been tagged as areas with weak or zero transmission signals.

However Madayag said during the field test on Jan. 26 in Bakun town was successful even without the BGAN machines. “The BGAN machines will be used only when necessary.”

During the consolidation canvassing system technician protocol field test, mock polls were held at two points in Bakun town transmitting results to the provincial capitol in La Trinidad and then to the Comelec point in Manila.

A laptop box, print kit and BGAN are part of the kits to be used in the actual elections, with the BGAN machines as back up when signal for both Globe and Smart telecommunications companies prove to be hard to get.

Benguet is known for its difficult terrain and fluctuating cellphone signals which may pose as a problem come election day.

Ideally, global positioning system (GPS), which will be used by Smartmatic-TIM for the transmission of the ballot count, is to be utilized but for areas without GPS, the BGAN satellite (BGAN) will be used.   – Artemio Dumlao