Improving internet access in the Philippines: the legal and collaborative approach

Introduction

The internet has democratized the access to information. During our elementary days, a student may be able to produce a better research output if he/she has an access to the library. If the student has a home library, he/she would likely produce a better research output than those students that do not have a home library. However, the cost of a home library in terms of money and space prohibits other people to adopt this tool. With the internet, a student now can discover research materials from around the globe. The materials are better, because it is updated and comes from multi-location sources. In case you want to attend courses abroad, you have only two choices – either go to the foreign country and study there or wait for the foreign professor if he will ever teach in our country. This was also during our elementary days. With the internet, people can now have an access to Massive Open Online Courses (MOCCs). 

These MOCCs allows the internet user to do the following:

1.       Attend classes through video conference

2.       Submit exercises and quizzes through emails

3.       Discuss with the professor or other students through the chat forums

MOCCs are a form of virtual classroom. Although it cannot fully replicate a real classroom session, it allows time and/or financially constrained people to have an opportunity to study in these courses. Hence, the true competitive advantage right now is not about keeping the information proprietary, but on how we use information to create useful products and services. There are many more examples on the benefit of the internet. However, we are assuming that internet access is available to every human being. In reality, it is not. In this paper, we examine on how laws and collaboration can improve the access of internet in the Philippines. 

Part 1 will discuss about the access to internet as a basic human right. We will explore the key principles stated in the United Nations’ Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Part 2 will discuss the characteristics of the internet access in the Philippines. Part 3 and 4 will cover the pending bills in the Philippines and laws in selected countries that are aimed to improve the internet access in those countries. Part 5 will discuss on collaboration as a strategy for different parties to improve internet access in the Philippines.