DICT granted P1.2B for free WiFi service

Money for the project is being sourced from the Free Public Internet Access Fund

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is set to spend P1.2 billion next year to boost its free WiFi services in the country.

According to Makati City 2nd District Rep. Luis Campos Jr., who is vice-chairperson of the House Appropriations Committee, the said amount was on top of the P1.2 billion earmarked this year for the construction of additional WiFi hotspots.

The fresh funds will be sourced from the proposed P4.1 trillion national budgets for 2020.

“Money for the project is being sourced from the Free Public Internet Access Fund,” Campos said, adding that the fund will be sustained by spectrum user fees collected by the National Telecommunications Commission.

As of 1 April 2019, the DICT has so far installed password-free WiFi hotspots in 2,330 sites across 17 regions across 73 provinces in over 640 municipalities and cities.

Campos is author of House Bill 3563, which seeks to grant the NTC board new powers to compel the country’s telecommunications sector to deliver improved Internet services to the public under pain of severe administrative monetary penalties.

To improve Internet services, the NTC in July finally issued a permit officially enabling the Mislatel consortium, now Dito Telecommunity Corp., to operate as the country’s third telecommunications player, breaking the duopoly led by Pangilinan-led PLDT Inc. and Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc.

Dito has pledged to invest P257 billion inside five years to provide 84 percent of the country access to a minimum Internet speed of 55 megabytes per second (Mbps).

Meanwhile, Campos is batting for greater overall budgetary support to the three-year-old DICT.

“This early, we have to give the DICT all the funding it needs to immediately advance critical projects, including the National Government Portal, the National Government Data Center and the National Broadband Plan,” he said.