The House Committee on Information and Communication Technology has passed House Bill 70812 that proposes the development and broad use of satellite technology in the digital economy to serve even the remotest areas in the country.
Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, chair of the House Ways and Means and the bill’s author, said “satellite based-internet broadband as one of the country’s modes for making internet access more inclusive and more diffused, is an alternative that can be quickly and easily deployed.”
Salceda said satellite liberalization was important because “in some far-flung areas, it’s too expensive for companies to set up broadband or fiber, but satellites don’t have that problem; Satellite-based internet will help bring prosperity to the countryside.”
“The farther a community is from a main island like Luzon or Mindanao, the less likely one is to have internet access. That is a source of inequality in wealth among regions, especially now that many economic opportunities are tech-based,” he added.
