DICT: National broadband connectivity completed by 2026

The Philippines will have total fiber backbone connectivity by 2026 as the project is currently at 70 percent of its completion in Luzon, an official of the Department of Information and Communications Technology said Saturday.

In a news forum in Quezon City, DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Dy said the Marcos administration is now working on the completion of the national fiber backbone connectivity along with efforts to provide free Wi-Fi connections in all barangays nationwide.

"The National Fiber Backbone is now 70 percent accomplished in Luzon and the target is by 2026 to finish from North Luzon to Mindanao. Hopefully, we are also inviting investors so that they can establish additional cable landing stations off the tip of Mindanao as a redundancy because most of our cable landing stations are concentrated in Luzon, and then there are a few in Visayas," Dy said.

The government's connectivity program also involves setting up a fiber backbone, a secondary platform in addition to those provided by commercial fiber laid out by private telecommunication entities like the PLDT, Globe and Converge — covering 28,000 kilometers of fiber nationwide.

Dy said the DICT will begin the project's second and third phases, which include procurement activities, within the remaining months of this year and next year, covering Visayas and Mindanao.

The government plans to put up free Wi-Fi connections in 110,000 sites by the end of 2026 or in the middle of 2027, costing the government approximately P50 billion  — a "significant investment for the government," said Dy.

The "Free Wi-Fi for All Project" mandates the DICT to provide free Wi-Fi in public places such as parks, municipal halls, public schools, state universities and colleges and other facilities.

The DICT has started launching free internet using very-small-aperture terminals in 438 areas under Managed Information System-Geographical Isolated Disadvantageous Area in the country, said Dy.

The government targets to establish at least 8,000 Wi-Fi sites in GIDA areas for this year and 15,000 villages for next year. The DICT will also launch additional free Wi-Fi spots in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi on Saturday next week, added Dy.