Targets free Wi-Fi for all by the end of 2026 or middle of 2027
(Eagle News)–The government is eyeing total national fiber backbone connectivity in 2026, with the National Fiber Backbone 70% completed in Luzon, an Informations and Communications Technology official said.
Undersecretary Jeffrey Dy said also in the pipeline is free Wi-Fi, with a target of setting up 110,000 sites by the end of 2026 or by the middle of 2027.
With 70 percent of the fiber backbone completed in Luzon, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will soon start Phase Two and Three covering Visayas and Mindanao.
Procurement activities are set to be undertaken this year and next year, Dy said.
He said the government was also “…inviting investors so that they can establish additional cable landing stations off the tip of Mindanao as a redundancy,” noting that “most of our cable landing stations are actually concentrated in Luzon and then there are a few in Visayas.”
As for the free Wi-Fi project, which is expected to cost approximately P50 billion, Dy said earlier this week, the DICT, along with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), already launched the very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) and Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDA) for 438 sites.
The target is to establish more than 8,000 free Wi-Fi sites that will cover GIDA barangays this year.
“By next year, ang target po natin ay 15,000 barangays. We are hoping to cover 110,000 sites all in all – ibig sabihin, may mga barangay that will have more than one or two sites sa free Wi-Fi,” he said.
He said on Saturday, DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy also led the launching of additional free Wi-Fi spots in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
The national fiber backbone connectivity program involves establishing a secondary platform.
The fiber, which would be apart from commercial fiber already laid out by public telecommunication entities, is expected to span 28,000 kilometers of the entire country.
The Free Wi-Fi for All Project, meanwhile, is in accordance with a law that mandates that the DICT provide free Wi-Fi in public places including parks, municipal halls, public schools, state universities and colleges (SUCs), and other facilities, Dy said.