Telecommunications in the Philippines are well-developed due to the presence of modern infrastructure facilities. The industry was deregulated in 1995 when President Fidel Ramos signed Republic Act No. 7925. This law opened the sector to more private players and improved the provision of telecom services are better and fairer rates, leading to the creation of many telecommunication service providers for mobile, fixed-line, Internet and other services.
PLDT, Inc., formerly known as the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, is a Philippine telecommunications, internet and digital service company.
Manuel "Mar" Araneta Roxas II is a Filipino politician who served as a Senator of the Philippines. He is the grandson and namesake of former Philippine President Manuel Roxas. He served in the Cabinet of the Philippines as Secretary of the Interior and Local Government from 2012 to 2015. Previously, he was the Secretary of Trade and Industry from 2000 to 2003 and Secretary of Transportation and Communications from 2011 to 2012. He is the son of former Senator Gerry Roxas.
One of the most dynamic and fastest growing sectors in the Philippines is the information technology–business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry. The industry is composed of eight sub-sectors, namely, knowledge process outsourcing and back offices, animation, call centers, software development, game development, engineering design, and medical transcription. The IT-BPO industry plays a major role in the country's growth and development.
The Universal Service Fund (USF) is a system of telecommunications subsidies and fees managed by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) intended to promote universal access to telecommunications services in the United States. The FCC established the fund in 1997 in compliance with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The FCC is a government agency that implements and enforces telecommunications regulations across the U.S. and its territories. The Universal Service Fund's budget ranges from $5–8 billion per year depending on the needs of the telecommunications providers. These needs include the cost to maintain the hardware needed for their services and the services themselves. The total 2019 proposed budget for the USF was $8.4 billion. The budget is revised quarterly allowing the service providers to accurately estimate their costs. As of 2019, roughly 60% of the USF budget was put towards “high-cost” areas, 19% went to libraries and schools, 13% was for low income areas, and 8% was for rural health care. In 2019 the rate for the USF budget was 24.4% of a telecom company's interstate and international end-user revenues.
Telecommunications engineering is a subfield of electronics engineering which seeks to design and devise systems of communication at a distance. The work ranges from basic circuit design to strategic mass developments. A telecommunication engineer is responsible for designing and overseeing the installation of telecommunications equipment and facilities, such as complex electronic switching system, and other plain old telephone service facilities, optical fiber cabling, IP networks, and microwave transmission systems. Telecommunications engineering also overlaps with broadcast engineering.
Internet in the Philippines first became available on March 29, 1994, 10:18 a.m., with the Philippine Network Foundation (PHNet) connecting the country and its people to Sprint in the United States via a 64 kbit/s link. As of February 2023, there are 85.16 million internet users in the country, where internet penetration stood at 73.1% of the total population.
The National Transmission Corporation is a Philippine government-owned and controlled corporation established in June 26, 2001 by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act and a corporate entity wholly owned by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM). It is the owner of the country's power grid and its related assets and facilities since March 1, 2003, and also served as operator of the grid from March 2003 until the turnover of the grid's operations, maintenance, management, construction, expansion, and eminent domain to the privately owned National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) on January 15, 2009.
Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Manalang Angara is a Filipino politician and lawyer currently serving as the 39th secretary of education ad interim since 2024, pending approval by the Commission on Appointments. He previously served as a senator from 2013 to 2024 and as the representative of Aurora's lone district from 2004 to 2013. He is also the chairman of Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, the governing body of basketball in the Philippines, since 2016. He is also a member of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino party, where he currently serves as the chairman.
The Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) was the primary policy, planning, coordinating, implementing, regulating, and administrative entity of the executive branch of the Philippine Government that would promote, develop, and regulate integrated and strategic information and communications technology (ICT) systems and reliable and cost-efficient communication facilities and services.
Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information with an immediacy comparable to face-to-face communication. As such, slow communications technologies like postal mail and pneumatic tubes are excluded from the definition. Many transmission media have been used for telecommunications throughout history, from smoke signals, beacons, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs to wires and empty space made to carry electromagnetic signals. These paths of transmission may be divided into communication channels for multiplexing, allowing for a single medium to transmit several concurrent communication sessions. Several methods of long-distance communication before the modern era used sounds like coded drumbeats, the blowing of horns, and whistles. Long-distance technologies invented during the 20th and 21st centuries generally use electric power, and include the telegraph, telephone, television, and radio.
The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, officially recorded as Republic Act No. 10175, is a law in the Philippines that was approved by President Benigno Aquino III on September 12, 2012. It aims to address legal issues concerning online interactions and the Internet in the Philippines. Among the cybercrime offenses included in the bill are cybersquatting, cybersex, child pornography, identity theft, illegal access to data and libel.
The Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom is an internet law bill filed in the Congress of the Philippines. The bill contains provisions promoting civil and political rights and Constitutional guarantees for Philippine internet users, such as freedom of expression, as well as provisions on information and communications technology (ICT) policy, ICT4D, internet governance, e-governance, cybersecurity, cyberwarfare, cyberterrorism, and cybercrime.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for the planning, development and promotion of the country's information and communications technology (ICT) agenda in support of national development.
Rodolfo "Rudy" Agapay Salalima is a Filipino lawyer who was the first secretary of the Philippine Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) under the Duterte administration. Salalima is the former chief legal counsel and senior advisor of Globe Telecom, one of the leading telecommunications firms in the country and has also served as Senior Vice President for Corporate and Regulatory Affairs and Managing Director of Ayala Corporation. He is also the former president of the Philippine Chamber of Telecommunications Operators (PCTO) and International Telecommunication Union Council working group for the amendment of ITU constitution and convention vice chairman for Asia Pacific Region.
The National Privacy Commission, or NPC, is an independent body created under Republic Act No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012, mandated to administer and implement the provisions of the Act, and to monitor and ensure compliance of the country with international standards set for data protection. It is attached to the Philippines' Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for purposes of policy coordination, but remains independent in the performance of its functions. The Commission safeguards the fundamental human right of every individual to privacy, particularly Information privacy while ensuring the free flow of information for innovation, growth, and national development.
Philippine Communications Satellite Corporation (PHILCOMSAT) is a telecommunications company based in Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines. Its main teleport is in the province of Rizal.
Eliseo Mijares Rio Jr. is a Filipino retired brigadier general and electronics engineer who is the former Undersecretary for Operations of the Philippines' Department of Information and Communications Technology and once headed the department under the Duterte administration from 2017 to 2019 as Officer-in-charge.
A bidding was held in November 2018 to determine the prospective third major telecommunications service provider in the Philippines which is meant by the Philippine government to compete with the existing duopoly of PLDT, Inc.–Smart Communications and Globe Telecom.
DITO Telecommunity Corporation, formerly known as Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company, Inc. or Mislatel is a telecommunications company in the Philippines which is also engaged in the business of multimedia and information technology. It is a consortium of DITO CME Holdings Corporation, a subsidiary of the Udenna Corporation which is owned by Davao businessman Dennis Uy, and China Telecommunications Corporation, a state-owned enterprise of the government of mainland China and a parent company of China Telecom.
