President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has successfully secured five significant agreements between private sectors from the Philippines and the United States, one of which involves deploying the country’s first-ever internet satellites.
The collaboration between California-based Astranis Space Technologies and Philippine-based Orbits Corp. aims to improve connectivity in remote areas of the country.
The signing of the agreement took place on the sidelines of the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco, California, with Marcos present to witness the event. The partnership between Astranis and Orbits seeks to provide internet connectivity to unserved and underserved areas in the Philippines, with an investment of $400 million over the next eight years.
The satellites, called MicroGEO, will be able to provide internet service to up to 10 million people in 30,000 villages. This is a big deal for the Philippines, as many people in these areas do not have access to the internet.
The project is expected to generate $400 million in investment and create over 10,000 jobs. The first satellite will be named “Agila,” which means “eagle” in Filipino. This name is meant to symbolize the project’s goal of empowering the Filipino people through access to the Internet.
In addition to the satellite agreement, President Marcos also witnessed the signing of four other major agreements between Philippine and US companies. These agreements cover a variety of areas, including weather forecasting, renewable energy, and infrastructure development.
Source: PhilNews24 | November 18, 2023
