Agrarian reform beneficiaries, rural hospitals to get free wi-fi����

THE DEPARTMENT of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is set to put up free Wi-Fi sites in 660 villages with agrarian reform beneficiaries, an official said in a joint Senate hearing on Wednesday.����

“[There is a] presidential directive to [put up Free Wi-Fi sites for agrarian reform] beneficiaries…and the DAR (Department of Agrarian Reform) has given us a list of beneficiaries, which consist of 9,313 barangays,” DICT Undersecretary for Connectivity Angelo Nuestro said.������

“Our procurement this month will hit 660 of those barangays,” he said.������

He added that part of the department’s procurements for this month will cover free Wi-Fi sites in rural health units and public hospitals nationwide.������

The DICT aims to build 10,816 free Wi-Fi sites this year, but noted that the contract for the budget is applicable until the end of the year.������

“There is a little bureaucratic complexity because the fund we are using is spent from [a] user’s fee, so it’s a special fund that expires [on] Dec. 31, so our contracts are until Dec. 31 [and] we cannot go beyond [the deadline],” Mr. Nuestro said.������

The DICT aims to build 201,420 free Wi-Fi sites by 2028.������

In an oversight hearing at the House of Representatives in May, DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy said only 3,900 out of 11,000 built free Wi-Fi sites were working because the telecommunication service subscriptions were not renewed by the previous administration.������

Senator Alan Peter S. Cayetano raised the possibility that the budget for free Wi-Fi sites should be set as multi-year to avoid cuts in subscription.����

The DICT noted that there were 85.16 million internet users in the Philippines in the first quarter of 2023, of which 3.2 million were connected to the government’s free Wi-Fi sites. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz