THE setting up of the Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga) Submarine Terrestrial (Best) Cable System is expected to boost Mindanao’s position as an information communication technology (ICT) hub.
“This (Best Cable System) will (provide support) to the only connection we are currently tapping, which is from Taiwan to Luzon to Mindanao,” Romeo Montenegro, Mindanao Development Authority (Minda) director of investment promotions and public affairs, said during Monday’s edition of Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City Davao.
The Best Cable System, initiated by the Best Cable Consortium, is a high bandwidth cable system of over 5,092 kilometers that will link the sub-region (Brunei Darussalam, Sabah, Southern Philippines, and Kalimantan, Indonesia) with extension to Guam and will connect with United States and the rest of the Asean. The cable system has an initial equipped capacity of 2.4 terabytes per second.
Montenegro said the target completion of the Best Cable System will be in 2018.
He said with the current single connection, the Philippines is having a speed of 3.5 megabytes per second, which is among the slowest in Asia.
Montenegro said if we are looking at the future in using the internet as a platform for businesses, “with the kind of internet situation the country is in now, our neighbors will outperform us.”
He said laying down of the Best Cable System will increase the internet speed in the country and will ready the Philippines for the growing industry of e-commerce, e-trading, and electronic transactions.
He said they will be able to invite more investors coming from the ICT industry to come to Mindanao with the improved internet connection.
“[Davao City] has already been cited as the next wave city for BPO. [And] we see [more companies] locating here,” Montenegro said. (Sun.Star Davao)
Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on October 29, 2014.
