Senator Sherwin Gatchalian wants public schools included in the government's free wi-fi program for a more efficient roll-out and to ensure Internet connectivity in the country’s public places.

Gatchalian quizzed the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) during the department and attached agencies' budget briefing on the status of the program’s implementation.

DICT’s initial target was to install free Wi-Fi in 125,000 public places. To date, the program covers only 6,700 public places, which have approximately 13,000 access points. 

According to DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy, rolling out the free Wi-Fi program by subscription in 125,000 public places may not be sustainable as it would require P58 billion a year.

The DICT official explained that they were exploring more cost-efficient ways of rolling out the free Wi-Fi program. The department is also exploring a possible collaboration with telecommunication companies to identify sites for the construction of new cell sites, especially in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs).

To encourage the construction of cell sites in these areas, the government will subsidize commercial losses by covering subscription fees, which will help telecommunications companies break even with their costs. For example, the government can distribute SIM cards and subsidize mobile phone load for up to two years to ensure subscription. 

This will, in turn, help improve internet penetration nationwide as the country still needs to construct 60,000 cell sites nationwide.

The DICT estimates that P5 billion is needed to roll out the first phase of its planned free wi-fi rollout, which will also target public schools and 300 barangays in GIDAs. The budgetary requirement, however, is not reflected in the National Expenditure Program (NEP), which was already submitted to Congress before negotiations started. 

Gatchalian assured DICT that he would support the agency in its proposal but sought more details, including timelines and targets.

“Of course, we want to help roll out the free wi-fi program. I also chair the Basic Education Committee and one of the things that the committee and Secretary Sonny Angara are pushing very hard is education technology or ed-tech. And of course, the crucial element of ed-tech is connectivity,” Gatchalian said.

Gatchalian has also filed the Digital Transformation in Basic Education Act (Senate Bill No. 383), which seeks to strengthen the use of information and communications technology for learning and mandates DepEd to streamline its workflows digitally.