President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stressed the need to boost the country’s digital connectivity and cybersecurity infrastructure to catch up with its Asian peers.
The President recently held a meeting with executives of satellite operator Kacific Broadband Satellites to discuss the need to enhance the Philippines’ technological capabilities.
During the meeting, the President and Kacific discussed the latter’s forthcoming launching of its satellite project and the ways to use the project in the long run.
“It’s just an improvement on what we have now. Make it more permanent. But this is not, this is on [the] long term. We have to keep up. We are always looking for additional capability when it comes to all these communications, especially with the problems of cyber security,” the President said.
The President also directed the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to work with Kacific to improve digital connectivity in the Philippines.
Mr. Marcos issued the directive to DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy and DOST Secretary Renato Solidum (DOST) during the said meeting.
“It’s really the capability that the Philippines needs. So yes, let’s set it up and let’s see what’s the specifics… so that we can see how this can fit us, this new system,” the President said, referring to Kacific’s upcoming project.
Kacific, a broadband satellite operator based in Singapore, is aiming to launch its Kacific 2 to add capacity to its existing satellite, Kacific1 to provide affordable internet service to the public.
In the latest Speedtest Global Index last June 2023, the Philippines showed a median download speed of 92.84 Megabits per second (Mbps) for fixed broadband and 26.98 Mbps for mobile broadband.
Moreover, the country ranked 47th out of 180 countries in terms of fixed broadband and 83rd among 140 countries for mobile broadband.
Meanwhile, the Philippines ranked 5th in fixed broadband and 7th in mobile broadband among its Southeast Asian neighbors.