LIRNEasia research fellow and board member of the Internet Society PH chapter, Grace Mirandilla-Santos participated in a roundtable discussion on the “Right to Access the Internet: Upholding a Human Right” organized by Democracy.net.ph (Philippines) and the Digital Empowerment Foundation (India).
Her talk mentioned LIRNEasia’s broadband QoSE study and how its results have been used to inform policymaking and regulation in PH. This was in the context of telcos providing internet access but at what cost and level of quality (value for money). She mentioned some of LIRNEasia’s early studies on Teleuse at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP). The research showed that in the Philippines, there are more Facebook users than internet users and was in line with her assertion that we need to examine the pros and cons of internet.org as the emerging (and more acceptable) universal access program of some countries, including the Philippines, very recently.
Grace (3rd from left) at the Right to Access the Internet: Upholding a Human Right panel, RightsCon 2015, March 24, 2014 at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Manila.
(Photo credit:Mr. Bayani Lara)
RightsCon 2015 was an international conference with 600 attendees from over 50 countries that discussed digital rights of users and the open internet. We thank Democracy.net.ph for inviting Grace to speak in their roundtable discussion; and Foundation for Media Alternatives and Internet Society – Philippine Chapter for the opportunity to participate at RightsCon.
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