NGCP offers facilities to push gov’t telco plan

National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has appealed directly to President Duterte on the power grid operator’s willingness to help the government build a national broadband network (NBN), months after waiting for an answer from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

In an open letter to Mr. Duterte sent out on Wednesday, the NGCP management emphasized that it was “willing and eager” to help out in the government’s efforts to develop an NBN, which would bring high-speed internet services, at least to government offices and maybe to the general public.

“We are willing to let the government use these (power transmission) facilities at no cost,” NGCP said.

NGCP has maintained that its concession agreement with the government through National Transmission Corp. allowed the company to engage in related businesses such as the fiber optic business.

NGCP officials earlier said the country’s transmission network was a ready facility that could support a third telecommunications service provider, which would be spared spending billions of dollars to build its own network from the ground up.

“We are ready to sit down and sign a bilateral agreement with the DICT for the use by government of NGCP’s fiber optic network,” NGCP wrote to Mr. Duterte.

The company said its representatives had met in May 2017 with their counterparts from the DICT, discussing NGCP’s fiber network and how this could potentially be used to support the broadband program.

“NGCP drafted and sent to the DICT, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will provide the protocol for the inspection and use of our facilities,” NGCP said.

“Since this is a priority project of the government, it was our understanding that the same would be considered, signed and reported to you in time for the 2017 State of the Nation Address,” it added.

The company said DICT representatives had, in fact, visited NGCP’s Dasmariñas Substation in Cavite to inspect the fiber optic cables embedded in the transmission system as well as the Araneta Substation and the National Control Center, both in Quezon City.

“Since then, we have not been invited to proceed with the signing of the MOU,” NGCP said.