Around 93 percent of the country may have access to free Wi-Fi services by the end of the year, announcement came on Tuesday, June 28, from Louis Napoleon Casambre, Executive Director of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Office of the Department of Science and Technology.
The remaining seven percent covers hard to reach rural areas, Casambre said. "'Yung remaining 7 percent, 'yan 'yung mahirap pasukin like 'yung Turtle Island, but we will look for other solutions for them."
Several areas in the country have already been enjoying free Wi-Fi services. These include the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City, The Philippine Coconut Authority, Social Security System office, Land Transportation Office and the Rizal Park in Manila.
ICT has asked for a budget of P3.2 billion for 2017 to cover for the country's free Wi-Fi project. The total budget for the agency is currently at P5 billion.
Two of the country's biggest telcos, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, have expressed support for the project. Recently, Globe announced providing free Wi-Fi services in Metro Rail Transit Line 3 stations.
With an estimated number of 117,000 internet users, the daily usage will be limited by a data cap of 50MB.
With the project being open to all distributors and not just to few internet providers, ICT is optimistic that affordability and service quality of the telecom products will be challenged with the new public service.
Source: ABS-CBN
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