Internet in the Philippines

The Internet first made its connection to the Philippines on March 1994. On that date the Philippine Network Foundation (PHNet) connected the country and its people to Sprint in the United States via a 64 kbit/s link. As of September 30, 2011, more than 30,000,000 people use the internet in the country accounting for 33% of the total population.

A year after the connection, The Public Telecommunications Act of the Philippines was made into law. Securing a Franchise is now optional for value-added service providers. This law enabled many other organizations to establish connections to the Internet, such as to create Web sites and having their own Internet services or providing Internet service and access to other groups and individuals. These developments are very significant for the country's internet sector.

However the growth of the internet in the Philippines was hindered by many obstacles including unequal distribution of the internet infrastructure throughout the country, its cost and corruption in the government.

But these obstacles did not altogether halt all the developments. More connection types were made available to more Filipinos. Increasing bandwidth and a growing number of Filipino internet users as years passed were proof of the continuing development of the internet in the country.

The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, codified as Republic Act No. 10175, criminalized cybersquatting, cybersex, child pornography, identity theft, illegal access to data and libel. The act has been criticized for its provision on criminalizing libel, which is perceived to be a curtailment in freedom of expression. After several petitions submitted to the Supreme Court of the Philippines questioned the constitutionality of the Act, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on October 9, 2012, stopping implementation of the Act for 120 days.