MANILA - The National Grid Corp of the Philippines said Wednesday the government could use some of its facilities for free to show its "willingness" to participate in the development of a national broadband network.

"NGCP has always been supportive of this administration’s initiatives towards the use of the dark fiber inherent to the transmission network for the development of the National Broadband Program," NGCP said in an open letter addressed to President Rodrigo Duterte.

Dark fiber refers to available and unused optical fiber network already in place.

NGCP expresses in an OPEN LETTER to President Duterte its willingness to help in building a national broadband network at NO COST to the government. pic.twitter.com/3A5BmZkQrD

— alvin elchico (@alvinelchico) February 7, 2018

In May 2017, NCGP met with the Department of Information and Communications Technology to discuss the agency’s dark fiber network and how it could support the national broadband project.

A Memorandum of Understanding was also drafted and sent to the DICT stating the protocols for inspection and use of NGCP facilities but it has not been signed, the statement said.

"We would like to reiterate our support of the NBP and we are ready to sit down and sign an bilateral agreement with the DICT for the use by government of NGCP’s fiber optic network," NGCP said.

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