Luxembourg-based communications network provider SES S.A. said Wednesday it will bring its advanced satellite technology to the Philippines next year to improve internet connectivity in rural areas.
Rob Marabut, SES Philippines director for business development, said in a media briefing the company’s O3b mPower’s “fiber-like service”, built on the use of medium earth orbit satellite systems, could bring 1 gigabit of capacity to any site especially during natural disasters.
“For any large calamity that hits the country, we can essentially resurrect that site within a few months or even less because of the large capacity we can bring,” Marabut said.
“One gigabit on a 5G cell site is phenomenal. It can essentially bring a lot of capacity not just into a village, but into multiple villages in a certain area,” he said.
Datareportal’s 2022 report showed that 35.77 million people or 32 percent of the Philippine population remained without access to the internet as of January 2022.
Marabut said the service would help mobile network operators Globe, Smart and DITO in deploying 4G and 5G signals to remote areas in the country to give more people access to various services such as e-banking and provide social inclusion opportunities.
“A lot of people today use various services like Lazada to buy things. We want to extend this kind of economy into the rural areas and [give] them the ability to also sell their products on Facebook, for example,” Marabut said.
Marabut said that while O3b mPower is not a consumer broadband service, ordinary Filipinos would benefit from the company’s deals with the mobile network operators.
SES supplies high-quality differentiated direct-to-home solutions for satellite television providers Cignal and GSat and is an active participant in the digital inclusion initiatives of the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
The company earlier teamed up with ComClark Network and Technology Corp. to deliver educational content to more than 2,000 schools across the country.
SES has 70 satellites in two different orbits, according to its website.