Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (PT&T) said Tuesday it signed a deal with a Chinese technology company to roll out a wireless broadband project nationwide.
PT&T said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it signed a memorandum of agreement with Chengdu Zhongxing Tiantong Technology Corp. to explore the feasibility of engaging in a project to provide free wireless broadband services in designated public areas before, during and after the occurrence of disasters in any part of the country.
“PT&T together with the other party will conduct a study on the feasibility of the project. Actual participation of each party shall be discussed after the conclusion of the said study and will be reflected in the definitive agreement that maybe reached by the parties,” PT&T said.
PT&T said the agreement would be effective for a period of 90 days from the signing of the contract.
PTT, which secured a franchise extension last year for another 25 years, offers fixed broadband to residential and business establishments in Metro Manila.
It aims to become a significant player in the broadband industry which is currently being dominated by Globe Telecom, PLDT Inc. and Sky Broadband.
Eliseo Rio Jr., officer in charge of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, said only 17 percent of the country’s homes and offices had fixed line internet access, compared to 100 percent in Japan and South Korea.
“Having more fixed line access would greatly decongest the mobile network of Globe and Smart, improving their QoS [quality of service]. So the immediate solution to improve internet speed and cost is to provide more fixed line access,” Rio said.
“We showed this in Edsa, where we put up around 800 free Wifi access points along MRT 3. Now, 700,000 people access these daily, enjoying double-digit speeds, greatly decongesting the cell sites covering Edsa,” he said.
Riod also said the government could provide it with a big market because it intended to subscribe to at least 250,000 free Wifi access points nationwide in compliance with Republic Act No. 10929.
“The third player won’t have to worry about its International Gateway Facility or their nationwide backbone because the government will take care of this. So initially, the third player will deal mostly with fixed access to the internet, bringing fast and low cost internet to even the remotest areas of the country, where small BPOs can exist, on-line government services will be available, health and education services will greatly improve etc.,” Rio said.