THE SENATE has increased the funding for the government’s free public wireless internet access program next year to P7.5 billion from P2.5 billion with the aim to provide internet connectivity to far-flung areas and to ensure schools can conduct hybrid-learning setups.
“The aim there is to increase the access points and increase the locations to areas where students and also communities don’t have access to the internet,” Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who sponsored the budget of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, told the plenary floor in the early hours of Wednesday.
“It’s very difficult for the education sector to go into online learning or distance learning without access to the internet.”
The funding will bankroll free internet access in public spaces, such as government offices, public schools, state universities, public hospitals and medical facilities, and transport terminals, among others.
A 2022 report by the World Bank showed that only 33% of Philippine households have access to fixed broadband, while 70% of the population have an active mobile broadband subscription.
Broadband internet remains costlier in the Philippines than in neighboring countries, with the annual charge for fixed broadband equivalent to 11% of per capita gross national income. —John Victor D. Ordoñez
