Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1) – Telecommunication companies are discussing with government possible services they can provide for virtual learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, their officials said on Wednesday.
“[O]ur business groups are currently in talks with the Department of Education for a plan to offer a service that will not only provide Internet connectivity but bundled with gadgets that they will be needing,” said PLDT first vice president Aileen Regio at the Senate Committee on Public Services hearing.
Regio said Globe is also involved in the discussion, which the Ayala-led firm confirmed.
“[T]he industry is in talks with the DepEd as well as CHED as to the offering for the students for gadgets as well as the training for the teachers,” said Globe general counsel Froilan Castelo.
DepEd is securing Internet connection for some 7,000 schools, according to President Rodrigo Duterte’s latest report to Congress. The project costs ₱700 million and is targeted for completion in ten months.
The agency also tapped the mobile networks to provide free access to the DepEd Commons, an online education delivery platform designed to support remote learning. With this, mobile subscribers of Globe, TM, Smart, Sun and TNT may access the site without incurring any data charges.
However, Smart VP for legal and regulatory affairs Roy Cecil Ibay said this free access is not permanent, and still under stufy in coordination with DepEd.
Hearing filled with connectivity issues, suspended by Poe
Meanwhile, the hearing was also plagued with connectivity issues. Participants took long to respond and even committee chairperson Grace Poe had to repeat what the attendees said to confirm their statements because their lines were breaking.
“This is quite ironic again that we’re having connectivity issues in a hearing on connectivity. So it’s just telling, the situation in our country and how we are trying to cope with this new requirement that we all need to have fulfilled,” Poe said.
Just last week, the National Telecommunications Commission failed to attend the Senate Basic Education Committee hearing on alternative learning schemes in the new normal because of faulty Internet connection.
Senator Nancy Binay, who was also in the hearing, shared Poe’s sentiment.
“Siguro madame Chair, just to share ha, because I’ve attended several online hearings, I think yung committee hearing mo today yung pinakamasama yung signal,” Binay commented.
[Translation: Just to share, madame Chair, I’ve attended several online hearings and I think your committee hearing today has the worst (Internet) signal.]
Poe eventually suspended the hearing, saying she does not want “to prolong our suffering anymore, straining ourselves trying to understand each other with this horrible connection that we have.”
