The communication committee of the city council has filed on first reading the proposal of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to establish a wireless wide area network in the urban center.

Councilor Pilar C. Braga, chair of the committee on energy, transportation and communication, said yesterday in her privilege speech that the commission’s proposal is aimed at building a wireless network that provides voice, data and video connectivity.

She said they will review the proposal of the agency and further clarify if it includes making the entire urban center a Wi-Fi enabled zone. The proposal is referred to her committee and the committee on environment and natural resources for appropriate action.

The proposal includes wireless communications backbone, public security infrastructure, public safety infrastructure and wireless wide area data network.

“There is need to look into it and see this kind of technology. This will answer the communication component especially on disaster risk reduction and management,” she said, explaining that it could immediately warn the residents when threats of risks arise.

She said the warning device could be tied up with the Central 911, Public Safety Command Center and Davao City Police Office.

Reports earlier cited that NTC eyed to have wireless area network to help decongest the telecom’s communications backbone. It will allow multi-applications in the system and can be used for voice and data.

The Information and Communication Technology-Davao also planned earlier to link the early warning device with a social platform developed by Mynd Consulting to send disaster alerts through text messages so residents could immediately respond and evacuate when there would be a disaster.