Policy Recommendations To Stimulate UAS

I-Café Pilipinas attended another important forum on the future of information and communications technology (ICT) in the country. This one is about the recommendations on a study made about how to stimulate the Universal Access and Service (UAS) to ICT in the Philippines. The forum was held at the 22nd floor of Discovery Suites at Ortigas Centre, Pasig City last March 29, 2010 and attended by the representatives of both public and private sectors concerned in providing broadband access to the people.

The forum focused on the recommendations contained in the study submitted to World Bank, Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). The two (2) government agencies are the ones tasked to implement the policies that the next administration may adopt from the study while World Bank (WB) is expected to finance the programs cited in it.

After the presentation of the summary of the study's recommendations by the WB representative, the forum proceeded with questions and answers by the participants. Worthy of note among the various topics discussed in the forum are the following:

A. Tower and spectrum frequency sharing among the telecommunication companies (telcos) providing broadband internet access to the public.

B. Government subsidy on the construction of provincial fiber optic backbone to facilitate faster roll-out of broadband access in unserved and underserved areas of the country.

C. Government loans to finance the purchase of affordable personal computers (PCs) by households with the thinking that having low cost PCs translates to higher internet connectivity by the people.

D. Continuation of the establishment of government-owned community e-centers (CeCs) in the unserved areas of the country although the program is rated in the study as a failure due to lack of sustainability by the previously established CeCs.

There were more issues brought up in the forum regarding the government's thrust to provide affordable internet access to Filipinos and while the participants were one in the objective, divergent views on how to attain universal access and service for the people were expressed by the forumers.