The telecoms regulator in the Philippines has proposed requiring telecoms operators to pay 0.25 per cent of gross revenue into a universal access fund (UAF) that would be used to fund broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas.

The proposal by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) calls for operators to collect and automatically send the levy to the government. The NTC would also be required to remit 90 per cent of the existing spectrum fee to the new fund, the Standard reported

The NTC collects nearly a half a billion pesos annually from mobile and broadband operators for spectrum use.

The country’s two largest operators – PLDT and Globe Telecom — reported combined revenues of PHP264 billion ($5.59 billion) last year.

The Philippines has lagged its neighbours in both fixed and mobile broadband penetration and speeds. Despite heavy investment in their networks over the past few years, OpenSignal put the country near the bottom in its global Q3 LTE speed ranking, with an average download speed of 8Mb/s (ahead of only Pakistan in Asia).

And the country, where 90 per cent of internet users are on mobile, had the second slowest average broadband downlink speed among 22 countries in Asia, according to internet metrics firm Ookla. Its average in May was 3.64Mb/s, compared to a global average of 23.3 Mb/s, putting it 176th out of 202 countries.

The government is spending PHP60 billion to boost internet access, but the NTC recently said it’s unlikely to meet its goal of providing 2Mb/s internet service to 80 per cent of the country’s households.

NTC deputy commissioner Edgardo Cabarios said given the current funding, it would take ten years to meet the target, the Standard reported. Cabarios said the government needs PHP800 billion to give 20.17 million households 2Mb/s service by 2016.