Prioritize public investment in broadband infrastructure for economic recovery
February 5, 2021
The National Economic Development Authority has stated that digital transformation as a priority growth pillar in the government’s economic program.
This was announced in a recent statement of NEDA Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon where digital transformation, health systems, food resilience, learning continuity were identified as the four priority areas that need to expand.
The pandemic has vastly accelerated the pace of digitization. In the face of the economic crisis of COVID-19, it is the benefits of digital technologies that have allowed consumers to meet their daily needs. Digital technologies have become a critical utility that must be accessible to all. This big shift to cloud-based solutions for communications and business transactions will further increase the demand for fast Internet connections as the country works to reboot from this deep economic crisis.
According to the November 2020 report of TowerXchange, Thailand has 52,483 and Vietnam has 90,000 which is over 5 times more than the 17,850 cell towers of the Philippines. Vietnam has 756 users per tower and Thailand 991. The Philippines has 4,090 users per tower which explains why we are experiencing degraded services because of high congestion. ASEAN governments are heavily investing in strategic telecommunications infrastructure. Vietnam invested US$820 million for a 23,000-kilometer submarine cable system. Thailand is spending US$343 million to connect their villages. Malaysia is investing US$233 million to increase coverage and broadband speed.
In the Philippines, investments in telecommunications infrastructures are primarily being driven by the private telecommunications companies that according to the projections by Fitch ratings, will accelerate by 20 to 25 percent in the next years. But this will not be enough to catch up with the surging number of users.
Aggressive investments already being done by the private telecommunications companies to expand and improve internet service will accelerate rapidly if government steps in to build a nationwide broadband backbone that will integrate with tower and fiber networks of private telcos.
Investing heavily in telecommunications networks is a proven strategy working well for our ASEAN neighbors that if delayed, or much worse, neglected, will leave us less competitive and may worsen the already deep economic slump.
Having robust and reliable broadband services is now a daily utility that every consumer must have access for livelihood activities and is an empowering tool for businesses to prosper and create much needed jobs.
Hence, it makes sense for government to allocate enough funding to at least operationalize the existing fiber network in the NGCP’s power transmission infrastructure and link-up with existing networks of private telcos.
CitizenWatch Philippines calls on the government to prioritize public investments in digital transformation and telecommunications infrastructure as a priority growth area for economic recovery.
Orlando O. Oxales
Lead Convenor