Foreign firms eyed for free Wi-Fi project
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) wants to tap foreign companies, with the help of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), to hasten the deployment of free Wi-Fi nationwide.
The domestic telecommunications industry, acting DICT chief Eliseo Rio Jr. said in a Facebook post on Monday, does not have the capacity to deliver the government’s promise of free Wi-Fi.
“While the government has the funds to pay the subscription costs for say 50 megabits per second committed information rate bandwidth in SUCs (state universities and colleges) and other public places, our telecommunication industry just can’t deliver in many of these locations,” Rio said, referring to criticism that the DICT was slow in implementing the Free W-Fi law of 2017.
“Government must therefore invest in telecommunication infrastructure to pursue these programs and not merely depend on local commercial telcos,” he added.
Dominant telcos PLDT and Globe Telecom, Rio also said, do not see free Wi-Fi as part of their business models, which he described as focused on attracting the “most paying subscribers.”
“The lessons learned here is that at present, our commercial telcos, specially the giants Globe and PLDT/Smart are not geared to providing Wi-Fi hotpots with sufficient bandwidth in public places,” he said.
Given this, Rio said the DICT was seeking UNDP assistance to fully implement the Free Wi-Fi Law.
“We are seeking the help of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to bring in foreign companies and technology to set up a National Free Wi-Fi Network, to train our people and telcos on roll-outs done in other countries with very successful free Wi-Fi programs,” he said.
For this year, the DICT is looking to deploy 8,000 free Wi-Fi hotspots via an investment of P1.6 billion. It looking to increase this to 200,000 by 2022.
Rio has said that the government’s connectivity program will have to include international gateway facilities, a backbone and infrastructure down to the last mile.
Commitments for the first two have been secured via the Luzon Bypass project — a partnership with Facebook announced last year — and a deal with National Grid Corp. of the Philippines and National Transmission Corp. for the use of their fiberoptic lines.
The agency has also tapped the National Electrification Administration and the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association Inc. to deliver not only electricity but also broadband connectivity to rural areas.
“With all these in place by 2019, and with the help of UNDP, we will be able to implement the Free Wi-Fi Law much faster and more efficiently,” Rio claimed.
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