Makati City 2nd district Rep. Luis Campos Jr. (Facebook)

Makati City 2nd district Rep. Luis Campos Jr. believes that the Philippines can move the needle in terms of economic growth by simply setting up 50,000 password-free Wi-Fi hotspots all over the country.

As such, Campos, a vice chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, is prodding the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to install a minimum of 50,000 such hotspots in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas or GIDAs.

"This means the DICT must put up 36,538 new hotspots on top of the 13,462 already built as of June 2024,” he said.

“Money is not a problem because the Free Internet Access in Public Places Law provides dedicated and sustained funding from the spectrum user fees collected by the government every year from private telecommunications companies (telcos),” Campos, the husband of Makati Mayor Abby Binay, pointed out.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released P2.45 billion for the Free Public Internet Access Program (FPIAP) in February and another P3.68 billion in August.

Campos said members of the appropriations panel want the DBM to release additional money for the FPIAP every time the DICT has reported the utilization of at least 70 percent of program funds to either pay for subscriptions, or to install additional hotspots.

“Right now, the DICT is already spending around P500 million every month just to pay for the subscription fees for the 13,462 hotspots that already have 10 million unique users,” Campos said.

The law mandates password-free internet access points in public parks, plazas, libraries, barangay halls, public schools, state universities and colleges, public hospitals, rural health units, public airports and seaports, and public transport terminals, among other sites.

“There’s no question that highly improved Internet connectivity can help drive economic growth,” Campos said.

He cited studies showing a 10 percent increase in the country’s Internet penetration rate can generate up to P342 billion in new economic benefit.

Campos has championed greater public access to high-speed Internet networks.

He is author of House Bill (HB) No. 10215, which seeks to reclassify Internet connection as a basic telecommunications service to which every Filipino enjoys a right of access, rather than a value-added service.

The reclassification would empower the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to impose rising minimum mobile internet speed targets that telcos must hit within prescribed deadlines.

Telcos that are unable to reach the target speeds would be subjected to harsh regulatory fines of up to P1 million per day, or P365 million per year, until they achieve compliance.

The Philippines’ mobile Internet speed averaged only 33.18 megabits per second (Mbps) in July 2024, way below Singapore’s 108.73 Mbps, Malaysia’s 104.80 Mbps, Vietnam’s 55.41 Mbps, and Thailand’s 53.95 Mbps, according to Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index for the month.