THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said it expects the second and third phases of the National Fiber Backbone to be running by 2025.
“It is being laid out and we are anticipating that Phase 2 and Phase 3 will be up and running in the middle of next year,” Secretary Ivan John E. Uy told reporters on Tuesday.
Phase 1 of the National Fiber backbone project is a high-speed connection between Laoag, Ilocos Norte and Quezon City.
The second and third phases will cover Southern Luzon and parts of the Visayas and Mindanao, Mr. Uy said.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. said during his third State of the Nation Address that the government will continue upgrading nationwide connectivity.
Last month, the World Bank said it approved a $287.24-million loan to help fund Philippine infrastructure projects improving broadband connectivity.
“With that approval, we will get funding for the remaining phases, that is phase 4, 5, and 6. That will cover mostly Mindanao and connect to the Visayas,” he said.
The backbone could be completed by 2027 instead of 2028, Mr. Uy said.
The loan will only fund part of the backbone with much of the connectivity projects for Mindanao likely supported by the national budget, he said.
The Laoag to Quezon City phase runs for 1,245 kilometers with 28 nodes. It has an initial 600 gigabits per second optical spectrum capacity that will serve the government and at least 14 provinces, and two National Government data centers, the DICT has reported. — Ashley Erika O. Jose