DICT

Sen. Koko Pimentel said "it is the DICT's responsibility" to reconcile the issues and "come up guidelines that will incentivize the entry of a new telco player while protecting the interests of consumers."

The partnership deal came after Rio criticized earlier this year the NGCP after it came up with a "open letter" to Pres. Rodrigo Duterte wherein it blamed the DICT for the delay in the rollout of the broadband project of the national government.

Following the appointment of Eliseo M. Rio Jr. as acting secretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Malacanang has promoted assistant secretary John Henry Naga as the agency's newest undersecretary.

The Better Broadband Alliance said the new player should be flexible and versatile enough to consider that it will likely not have a free ride on existing infrastructure,

DICT acting secretary Eliseo M. Rio Jr. said the IT-BPO sector is moving towards artificial intelligence that would require ?very fast and very expensive Internet connectivity?.

The initiative is the government's response to the World Summit on Information Society Plan of Action which the Philippines was a signatory.

The National ID System is a consolidation of the existing government-initiated ID system into one integrated system that can be used to verify the identities of individuals in availing of public services or engaging in using public transportation.

The issuance of the circular, dated May 11, is the first act of Eliseo M. Rio Jr. since being appointed as acting secretary of the DICT on Tuesday, May 8.

The appointment comes six months after Rodolfo Salalima, the DICT?s first secretary, resigned from his post.

The issue of spectrum is worth a close look, because it affects the telecommunications sector on a fundamental level.