MANILA: Reliance Broadcasting Unlimited (RBU), the newly-created affiliate company of fiber broadband provider Converge ICT Solutions Inc., was the official partner of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) for the live feed of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s third State of the Nation Address (SONA) last week.
In a news release Wednesday, the PCO said the partnership with RBU enabled the Radio Television Malacañang (RTVM) to seamlessly air the President’s SONA last July 22 from the Batasan Pambansa Complex to thousands of homes across the country.
Marcos’ third SONA was the pilot broadcast of the company, the PCO said.
‘We take great pride in leveraging our technology for public service and information – after all, as a broadband company, we champion access to information. With RBU now up and running, we were able to stream RTVM via our entertainment box at the House of Representatives, and to our thousands of Vision box subscribers,’ RBU president Frank Martin Abalos said as quoted by the PCO.
Converge parent company ComClark Network and Technology Corp. installed entertainment boxes called ‘Vision,’ in the majority of the television sets at the Batasang Pambansa complex, allowing guests and employees of the House of Representatives to tune in to the SONA.
The Vision boxes were installed in the Manuel Villar Jr. Hall, Prospero Nograles Hall, Women’s Legislator Lounge, Hallway COA, inside COA, the Plenary Hall, Social Hall, Andaya Hall, Elizalde, RTVM Room, RVM ½, North Lounge Extension and the People Center.
Converge has the largest fiber-to-home network in the Philippines with over eight million ports and a fiber footprint extending over 700,000 kilometers that reaches 16 million Filipino homes nationwide.
As of March 2024, Converge serves 2.3 million residential broadband subscribers across the country.
Source: Philippines News Agency