DICT to put up 106 free WiFi locations in CV in 2021

THE Department of Information and Communications Technology Visayas Cluster 2 (DICT VC2) planned to set up 424 live sites this year for its Free WiFi for All (FWFA) program in Central Visayas.

The free WiFi will be installed in 106 locations across the region, such as government hospitals, public schools, state universities and colleges (SUCs), airports and seaports, terminals, and others.

Each place will have four access points or sites that distribute the Internet to different areas within the location, similar to the public WiFi system in airport terminals.

In 2020, DICT VC2 rolled out 69 live sites in Region 7, with SUCs, hospitals, and COVID-19 isolation facilities as the priority areas.

"All locations tagged as 'live sites' are already functional and good for public use," DICT VC2 Director Frederick Amores and Cluster WiFi Team Leader Gem Albert de la Cruz stated in an interview via email.

Since it was the department’s central office in Manila that provided the target number of live sites to put up in the region this year, DICT VC2 is also coming up with local solutions to further expand the delivery of public WiFi in Central Visayas.

More access points

• Level 1 provides 50 MB data per day and only needs the machine ID (MAC address) of a device to connect to the Internet.
• Level 2 gives 100 MB to the user and can be accessed through registering with a Philippine government-issued ID.
• Level 3 is not yet available, but this will offer 300 MB of data per day to give the user full access to e-Government services and transactions with the use of a Citizen’s Digital ID.

• National Broadband Program Plan with a 2021 budget of P1.9 billion,
• Issuance of the Common Tower Policy for broader coverage of ICT services and lesser cost of ICT infrastructure deployment,
• Suspending the requirements of cell tower construction to fast track its deployment process, and
• Rolling out of the third telco, Dito Telecommunity, which officially launched in selected areas in Metro Cebu and Davao on Monday, March 8, 2021. (Jenika Gi-An C. Nero, St. Theresa’s College-Cebu Media Communication student)