Public places all over the country—including the rural areas—will soon have free Wi-Fi access.
The Free Wi-Fi in Public Places project will install wireless Internet access points in town plazas, parks, government offices, health units and transport terminals, including train stations, seaports and airports.
The total number of beneficiary municipalities stands at 1,435.
Science Secretary Mario G. Montejo is hopeful that with the increased budget, the industry will better participate in the program.
“We are looking forward to providing connectivity through our private-sector partners, especially in the rural areas. With Internet connectivity readily available, their lives can be enhanced with better access to weather information, education, agricultural resources, commerce, e-government services, as well as employment, through online jobs,” Montejo said.
The Department of Science and Technology-Information and Communications Technology (DOST-ICT) Office’s Free Wi-Fi Internet Access in Public Places Project will include Class 1 and 2 municipalities, in order to better reach the Class 3 to 6 municipalities, which were the original target beneficiaries of the project.
The decision to include Class 1 and 2 municipalities initially stemmed from the low participation in the procurement of providers for the original 967 beneficiary municipalities. A reason cited by the providers was the low price of Allocated Budget for Contract (ABC) for the various municipalities. According to Undersecretary Louis Casambre of the ICT Office, “We intend to increase the budget allocation for Municipal Connectivity for the project, by around 50 percent. Likewise, we will also be including Class 1 and 2 municipalities in order to better reach Classes 3 to 6, the ones who need Internet connectivity the most.”
Casambre said providers would need to upgrade and expand their communications infrastructure in order to serve far flung areas. With Class 1 and 2 municipalities included it would be easier for them to reach the poorer communities.
“Tenders are currently being prepared for the new municipalities with the new budget, and they should be available within the month,” Casambre added.
According to the Project Management Team, P1.6 billion was added to the 2015 unobligated funds for the 2016 budget.
Domestic Internet connectivity to the 14 major cities of the project, which will act as hubs, has already been awarded to a joint venture between Innove and Yondu Inc.
While connectivity to the international Internet was awarded to Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., connectivity to various municipalities was awarded to WIT, Converge ICT Solutions and a joint venture between AZ Communications and Omniprime.
The System and Management and Access component of the project which will oversee the nationwide network of access points and provide the hardware necessary was awarded to Abratique and Associates Inc., which will be utilizing Cisco equipment to deliver connectivity to the end users .
The ICT Office of the DOST is the Philippine government’s lead agency on ICT-related matters. Its primary thrusts are in the ICT Industry Development, e-government, ICT policy development, Internet for all and Cybersecurity.
S&T Media Service