The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will be reevaluating the agency’s Free Wi-Fi Program, this was announced on DICT website and social media channels.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), they are overhauling its Free Wi-Fi Program to improve efficiency and sustainability, driven by President Marcos’s directives, basically to cut the current program’s ₱6.5 billion annual cost for 7,000 locations with 16,251 Free Wi-Fi Sites.
One of the option that the agency is looking at is a long-term agreement with a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite provider to offer 200Mbps internet to 10,000 schools for ₱1.5 billion annually. In addition, 40,000 additional locations have been identified for multicasting educational content, further improving digital learning accessibility nationwide.
The DICT will allocate ₱5 billion, as directed by President Marcos, for the “SIM Card ng Bayan” project. This project will subsidize cell tower construction by providing students near new towers with free 25GB internet subscriptions. Leveraging the Common Tower Program to expand mobile network coverage and deploy broadband wireless access. The SIM Card ng Bayan Project is seen as a more sustainable alternative to the existing Free Wi-Fi Program.
Source: DICT
