With the approval of the national broadband plan, Sen. Bam Aquino called on the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to present it stakeholders, experts and other concerned groups for suggestion and scrutiny.

“Masaya tayo’t inaprubahan na ng pamahalaan ang national broadband plan na makatutulong upang mapaganda ang kalidad at mapalawak ang sakop ng internet sa bansa,” said Sen. Bam, chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology.

“Now that the plan is approved, we call on DICT to present it to stakeholders, experts and other concerned organizations for scrutiny and suggestion to ensure that it will be an effective one,” he added.

 According to Sen. Bam, the committee will conduct a hearing where the DICT can provide details of the plan, which was approved by President Duterte during Monday’s 13th Cabinet meeting.

 During last year’s committee hearing, Sen. Bam said the DICT presented three options to implement the P75-billion plan, including its preferred way of investing in Internet infrastructure, like fiber optic cables, especially in underserved and hard-to-reach areas.

Under this option, the government will also use the existing infrastructure of current players while encouraging new players to develop new Internet infrastructure.

 The DICT is expected to come out with a final national broadband plan by the 2nd quarter of 2017. The project is expected to be finished in about 2 to 3 years.

Sen. Bam is the principal sponsor of Senate Bill No. 1277 or the Free Internet Access in Public Places Act, which is being currently tackled in the plenary.

If enacted into law, free internet access will be provided in all national and local government offices, public schools, public transport terminals, public hospitals and public libraries.

 Sen. Bam’s Senate Bill No. 1050 is included in Senate Bill No. 1277. It seeks to connect all public educational institutions to the internet to help students enhance their personal and academic development.