Manila: Officials of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and Rakuten executives discussed ways to improve the performance of the messaging service Viber in a meeting on Tuesday.

According to Philippines News Agency, the DICT released a statement highlighting that the meeting, led by its Secretary Henry Aguda, focused on addressing service performance concerns impacting Filipino users and exploring strategies to enhance Viber's reliability in the Philippines.

The discussions included topics such as call setup performance, network latency issues, infrastructure upgrades, and potential strategies for relocating parts of Viber's infrastructure closer to the Philippines. Both parties expressed their commitment to improving technical coordination with local telecommunications companies to more effectively identify and resolve service issues.

The DICT emphasized that the meeting is part of its ongoing efforts to collaborate with digital platforms and industry stakeholders to ensure better, faster, and more reliable digital services for Filipinos. The meeting featured DICT officials and Rakuten Viber executives including Liad Shnell, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Security Officer; Dean Shub, Chief Architect and Director of Architecture; and Lerick Elipe, Business Development Manager.