DICT appeals to LGUs, homeowners association to fast-track ICT infra rollouts

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is calling on local government units (LGUs) and homeowners associations (HOAs) to ease permitting requirements and streamline their procedures to accelerate the rollout of cell sites and other ICT infrastructure for telecommunications companies and internet service providers for the benefit of residents in their respective areas.

In a statement on Thursday, DICT said LGUs and HOAs need to cooperate in addressing the people’s need for connectivity and better quality of ICT services.

The ICT department said it hopes that ICT infrastructure providers will be fostered at the local level to fast track their roll out and construction of much-needed infrastructure during this COVID-19 pandemic.

The agency also appealed to all checkpoint officials and other entities enforcing the quarantine, to ensure unhampered movement of ICT personnel and equipment of telecommunications companies, internet service providers, cable television providers, including those who perform indirect services such as technical, sales, and other support personnel, as well as their third-party contractors doing sales, installation, maintenance and repair works.

“Internet access has become an essential utility in our collective efforts to significantly improve the public health situation,” Information and Communication Technology Secretary Gregorio Honasan II said.

“With that in mind, we should keep working together for the continued improvement of our internet connectivity infrastructure,” he said.

Honasan said the call is in response to the increased demand for connectivity.

It is also one of the President Duterte’s core priorities, he added.

“We encourage the accelerated rollout of more telco sites to promptly improve internet access,” he said.

The DICT’s advisory is in line with the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) Resolution No. 30 and Office of the President’s Executive Order No. 112, which confirmed and adopted the IATF-MEID’s Omnibus Guidelines on the Implementation of Community Quarantine in the Philippines. — Ted Cordero/RSJ, GMA News