DOST, PLDT to forge neutral internet exchange

Philippine government websites will have a third connectivity access point, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said on Monday as it signed the memorandum of agreement that will make the link materialize and provide faster Internet service.

 

"PLDT, shall provide the DOST through the Advanced Science and Technology Institute, (ASTI) operator of PHOpenIX, the country’s first and only neutral Internet Exchange, fiber optic connectivity from PLDT’s Pasig City Vitro Data Center to ASTI," the DOST said in a news release.

 

PLDT Vitro will be the third physical connection point of PHOpenIX. The other two are the MK1 with Globe Telecom and the ASTI access point in Diliman.

 

"Through the new link between PLDT and PHOpenIX, private networks hosted with PLDT can opt to connect and peer directly to PHOpenIX, allowing for faster access to content hosted on the Internet Exchange’s peered networks," the DOST also said.

 

According to Undersecretary Louis Casambre of the DOST-ICT Office the PHOpenIX will enable "true peering which is the exchange between previously independent networks will soon benefit the customers of each of these networks.”

 

The three local Internet exchanges (IX), the DOST said, will "allow for Internet data to be transmitted between users within a locality to take shorter route through an IX rather than taking a longer route outside the country."

 

"Most of the country’s providers are not peered through an IX, which is one of the reasons Internet access in the country is relatively slow compared to its neighboring countries where providers are peered through a neutral IX," the DOST also said.  — ELR/TJD, GMA News