Agrarian reform beneficiaries, rural hospitals to get free wi-fi
THE DEPARTMENT of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is set to put up free Wi-Fi sites in 660 villages with agrarian reform beneficiaries, an official said in a joint Senate hearing on Wednesday.
“[There is a] presidential directive to [put up Free Wi-Fi sites for agrarian reform] beneficiaries…and the DAR (Department of Agrarian Reform) has given us a list of beneficiaries, which consist of 9,313 barangays,” DICT Undersecretary for Connectivity Angelo Nuestro said.
“Our procurement this month will hit 660 of those barangays,” he said.
He added that part of the department’s procurements for this month will cover free Wi-Fi sites in rural health units and public hospitals nationwide.
The DICT aims to build 10,816 free Wi-Fi sites this year, but noted that the contract for the budget is applicable until the end of the year.
“There is a little bureaucratic complexity because the fund we are using is spent from [a] user’s fee, so it’s a special fund that expires [on] Dec. 31, so our contracts are until Dec. 31 [and] we cannot go beyond [the deadline],” Mr. Nuestro said.
The DICT aims to build 201,420 free Wi-Fi sites by 2028.
In an oversight hearing at the House of Representatives in May, DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy said only 3,900 out of 11,000 built free Wi-Fi sites were working because the telecommunication service subscriptions were not renewed by the previous administration.
Senator Alan Peter S. Cayetano raised the possibility that the budget for free Wi-Fi sites should be set as multi-year to avoid cuts in subscription.
The DICT noted that there were 85.16 million internet users in the Philippines in the first quarter of 2023, of which 3.2 million were connected to the government’s free Wi-Fi sites. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz
