OPERATORS wanting to roll out broadband infrastructure in so-called missionary areas will have to do so with no government subsidy, at least in the meantime, as the Board of Investments has yet to decide on requests to provide perks for such deployments.

Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III, chair of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology, said the proposal for incentives for broadband deployment was ?still on the table,? but no final decision had been made.

He admitted that the government needed to pitch in if it wanted to expand broadband coverage in the country. Based on industry studies, the Philippines ranked among the lowest in the region and the world in terms of broadband coverage.

?There should be some government intervention, but how involved should we be? What level of support should we give? That?s what we want to determine from our ongoing study,? Roxas-Chua said.

The World Bank had provided funds for the conduct of the country?s Universal Broadband Access Study, which aimed to determine the best and most appropriate universal broadband access strategy for the Philippines.

Almost six months ago, the CICT had told the BOI of its request to provide tax breaks or other perks to broadband service providers that would deploy services in rural areas.

Roxas-Chua admitted that it would be ?a challenge? to secure such incentives, particularly at a time when government revenues were declining.

?But we?ll still push for it. We believe incentives to operators and (Internet service providers) are important to encourage them to invest,? he said.