Solons urge DICT to fast-track installation of rural cell sites

Lawmakers called on the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to fast-track the installation of cell sites in far-flung areas with no internet connectivity as the education system shifts to a blended learning scheme amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, Rizal Representative Juan Fidel Felipe Nograles and Ang Probinsyano party-list Representative Ronnie Ong cited the need to prioritize communication infrastructure.

"We really need good internet signal especially during the time when the new normal is really using technology to work and also learn from home," said Ong.

"Government needs to invest in technology infrastructure, and not just roads and bridges. Kailangan i-bundle na talaga ito," he added.

Nograles, vice-chair of the House Education Committee, chimed that the building of cellular sites could be accelerated.

The Department of Education (DepEd) earlier declared that there would be no face-to-face classes until a vaccine against the coronavirus disease was available.

Meanwhile, the DICT, last month, finally released the guidelines governing the sharing of telecommunications towers in a common tower policy.

The planned common tower policy seeks to free telecommunications companies from costly capital expenditures in building communication towers.

Under the policy, the DICT would assist telecommunications companies in securing the necessary permits to put up towers, which takes as much as nine months to finish.

At present, 24 independent tower companies (ITC) have expressed their intent to build towers which they will then lease out to telecommunications companies.

Dito Telecommunity Corp., the newest player in the sector, said earlier this month that securing permits was not as difficult as expected.

For its part, Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc. said that it still took as much as six to nine months to put up a tower.

Globe earlier filed a civil suit against a resident of the upscale Dasmariñas Village in Makati City for preventing the telco from constructing cell sites inside the subdivision. — DVM, GMA News