CEBU CITY — The United States is exploring possible assistance for internet service providers in Philippine rural areas, a specialist from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) said.

The US International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) is "looking for local partners" in digital connectivity, USAID senior economic growth specialist Jon Avila said.

"We’re in the exploratory stage for that... It’s very premature for me to mention any, but we’re facilitating meetings with some community networks. Hopefully, they will finance these community networks and at least for those areas, connectivity will be improved," Avila said.

"The idea here is to get outside PLDT and Globe areas. That’s where the needs are," he said in a media seminar sponsored by the US Embassy in Manila.

The DFC, America’s development bank, secures private investment opportunities for emerging markets.

"We basically play a role in de-risking and providing guarantees to private capital. If private capital says it's a bit risky, but with a DFC guarantee, they will provide a loan, for example," Avila said.

Depending on the risk, loans could go as high as $100 million, he said.

While many community ISPs can provide fiber broadband, "technical issues" in the regulatory process hinder their entry, advocacy group Better Internet PH lead advocate Mary Grace Mirandilla-Santos said.

An ISP would need to secure a franchise first from Congress even if it does not intend to offer telco services, she said.

The proposed Open Access in Internet Service Act seeks to simplify the registration process for ISPs, she noted.

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FREE WIFI

In the meantime, Mirandilla-Santos said the government's Free Public Wi-Fi program could help supplement broadband connectivity, but it would need to be "more responsive" to its users' needs.

"The program needs to go beyond the 'one-hour-per-day-per-person' model so that it can be useful for e-learning, e-government services, online business, among others," she said.

Government should improve the promptness of payments to contractors to encourage them to keep participating in the project, Mirandilla-Santos added.

She said the Open Access bill also supports free Wi-Fi as it would encourage the growth of small network providers, which when allowed to build the infrastructure, would go even to the far-to-reach areas.

"If that happens, free Wi-Fi as a managed service could be more easily procured on a regional or even provincial level, and managed in small chunks, rather than having massive bids at the national level," she said.

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