Government to start Mindanao fiber project

MANILA, Philippines — The government will begin building the final phases of the National Fiber Backbone (NFB) next year to improve internet speed in Mindanao before President Marcos steps down in 2028.

Information Secretary Ivan John Uy yesterday said the second and third segments of the NFB are scheduled to be completed in 2025, with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) preparing for the remainder of the project.

The second and third sections cover the south of Luzon, connecting to the initial leg that extends for 1,245 kilometers between Laoag, Ilocos Norte and Quezon City.

Uy said the DICT is gearing up to implement the fourth, fifth and sixth phases of the NFB, eyeing to get construction started next year. The goal is to put up the entire fiber backbone by 2027, a year before the Marcos administration ends its term.

Uy expressed confidence the DICT can deliver the project on time, as financing is no longer an issue. In June, the President approved the $288 million Philippine Digital Infrastructure Project (PDIP) that seeks to enhance internet access nationwide, particularly in remote towns.

The World Bank will finance the project through a loan, marking the first borrowing extended to the Philippines for digital infrastructure.

With the funding, the DICT can procure submarine cables that will stretch the NFB to Visayas and Mindanao, which is where internet penetration is lagging the most.

On top of the World Bank loan, Uy said the DICT has received commitment from legislators that they would support the rollout of the NFB through the national budget.

The DICT is expecting a quicker completion for the closing segments of the NFB given that they would be constructed simultaneously.

Prior to this, the agency was building the project in phases due to lack of resources, forced to make do with what is allocated in the annual budget.

Once activated in full, the NFB will serve the internet needs of the government and communities. The cables along the path will facilitate data transfer between and among the regions, improving the speed by which digital services are delivered.

The first phase of the NFB is composed of 28 nodes between Laoag and Quezon City, with a spectrum capacity of 600 Gbps in service of 346 national and local agencies.

The government wants to expand the number of households with internet access to 60 percent by 2028, from 17.7 percent in 2019, as laid out under the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028.