Due to scant broadband frequencies, the government plans to harness unused Television channels - White Space (TVWS) or ''Super Wi-Fi'' - nationwide within 3 years to connect rural areas, schools and also for health, disaster migration, e-services and e-business.
Between them, Metro Manila and Cebu have 18 unused channels, with 46 percent of spectrum wasted.
Davao has 62 percent TV White space with 24 unused channels and the country's rural areas have a total of 24-31 unused channels, or 62-80 percent TV White Space.
''When you turn on your TV to these unused channels, the set displays ''white noise'' resembling snow, with a hissing sound,'' according to Louis Napoleon C. Casambre Executive Director, Information and Communications Technology Office of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-ICTO) in a press briefing Friday.
Does the Philippines really need another national flower?
Senators think so as they approved on third and final reading a bill that declares the Waling-waling orchid as a national flower apart from Sampaguita Monday.
Outgoing Senator Edgardo Angara, who sponsored the measure in the Senate said the bill will remind Filipinos about its natural beauty, one that is admired all over the world.
MANILA, Philippines --- Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday said the Senate may be able to pass the last of the proposed amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) this week before it closes session in preparation for the May 2013 elections.
Enrile said he is confident that the Senate would be able to ''refine'' contentious provisions of the Senate Bill No. 3123 in the remaining three days so that the bill could be passed and be signed into law by the President in time for the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s deadline and avoid being blacklisted.
''We will finish the AMLA (bill). We have to (pass it) according to the authors. Tinulungan ko na nga sila nung last session namin to refine the provisions so that we can pass it because we're short of time,'' Enrile said in an interview over DZBB.
MANILA, Philippines --- Congress will transmit the enrolled copy of a bill seeking to remove taxes on international carriers and shippers for President Benigno S. Aquino III's signature heading into the break for the election period.
''It will be transmitted to the Palace during the break, but it will be ASAP (as soon as possible),'' said Majority Leader Neptali ''Boyet'' Gonzales II.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. signed the enrolled copy of the bill on Jan. 31, 2012. This was then transmitted to the Senate on the same day.
SUPERBRANDS, a prestigious international branding and polling outfit, has named Representative Karlo B. Nograles (first district, Davao City) as one of the 20 Most Outstanding Congressmen in the 15th Congress.
He is one of the two elected congressmen from Mindanao who made it to the elite circle. The other lawmaker who made it to the list is Representative Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City. Nograles and Rodriguez are both lawyers.