Luzon Bypass Infrastructure to boost PH's internet state, operational by 2020

Filipinos may finally witness faster and cheaper internet access by 2020, a senior government official said. 

File photo: DICT Undersecretary Eliseo Rio Jr. 

Luzon Bypass Infrastructure operational by 2020

Given the partnership of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) with social media giant Facebook, which was sealed last 2017, the Luzon Bypass Infrastructure (LBI) is targeted to be online within the first three months of 2020, delivering 2 terabytes per second (Tbps) of internet bandwidth capacity to the Philippines. 

Although the 2 Tbps of internet bandwidth capacity would amount to PHP 26 billion per year, the government is not required to cough up any investments amid the existing agreement with Facebook, DICT undersecretary for operations Eliseo Rio Jr. said in a Facebook post. 

Rio noted LBI is part of the government's National Broadband Program (NBP), which seeks to improve the quality of internet state in the country.

While the NBP is a work in progress, our citizens will feel its effects before the end of 2020, Rio said. 

The DICT official also said the project would connect all government agencies down to barangay levels, promising to provide 100,000 FREE WiFi hotspots in public places by 2022. 

Aside from the LBI, the NBP includes 6,200 km dark fiber of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines; middle mile to connect regional, provincial, and municipal point of presence; the last mile connecting end-users; and a satellite overlay.

Source: Facebook