MANILA – Telecommunications giant Globe Telecom, Inc. (Globe) has agreed with Senator Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian’s suggestion to build cell towers in every public school to extend the availability of mobile services to the farthest reaches of the country.
In a Laging Handa briefing recently, Yolanda “Yoly” Crisanto, Globe senior vice president, said installing cell sites in public schools is needed for blended learning, or using traditional and new media such as the internet and radio on education, to be viable in remote areas of the country.
“Our problem is having a permit. If we will be allowed, we will build,” Crisanto said.
Globe, she said, has been working with the Department of Education (DepEd) even before the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, noting that its joint projects include Text2Teach, internet in schools, the annual Balik Eskwela Program, and Global Filipino Schools Program.
While Globe has been working with DepEd on the realization of blended learning in the midst of the pandemic, she said public and private schools currently face different challenges, especially with the limited resources of public schools.
Currently, she said Globe provides free access to the DepEd Commons website -- a source of online learning materials for both students and teachers -- for its subscribers while providing training for teachers on online teaching.
Private schools, on the other hand, can avail of their pay services which provide “special packages at cheaper prices” such as a data package for schools and students at PHP199 for 34GB.
Common towers for telcos
Meanwhile, she said Globe supports the common tower policy being developed and promoted by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) with some caveats.
“We support it though we hope that we will not incur additional capital expenditures; there should be a commercial agreement or a partnership if telcos will share a tower and that we will be informed which telcos we are sharing the tower with,” Crisanto said.
On Tuesday, Gatchalian called on telcos to install cell towers in public schools to help provide internet access to the country’s 42,000 barangays.
He said that such a move would “hit two birds with one stone,” addressing lack of mobile coverage in remote areas while providing the means for distance learning made necessary by the current health crisis. (PNA)
