Luzon bypass digital infra will be operational next year — DICT

The National Broadband Program’s Luzon Bypass Infrastructure project is targeted to be activated next year, according to the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

“We expect the Luzon Bypass Infrastructure will be online by next year,” DICT Assistant Secretary Anna Mae Lamentillo said during the Laging Handa briefing on Thursday.

Lamentillo said the project would “increase government internet capacity by 50 times.”

In 2017, the Philippine government partnered with Facebook, now Meta, for the creation of a cable landing system, which aims to improve internet speeds to reach as fast as 2 terabits per second (Tbps) by connecting the country to the rest of Asia and the United States.

Under the partnership,  Meta will construct and operate a cable system that will land in the cable stations in Baler, Aurora and in Poro Point in San Fernando, La Union.

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) will build the Luzon Bypass Infrastructure—two cable landing stations connected by a 250-kilometer long cable network—which will host the cable systems.

The DICT earlier said the government was expected to save P720 million in internet subscription expenses in the first year of implementation of the NBP.

It said that for NBP’s Phase 1, the DICT will activate the cable landing station in Baler and connect to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) Node in San Fernando through the Luzon Bypass Infrastructure. —VBL, GMA News