Recalling previous online protests, there was once a petition to make the Philippines a WiFi country. If my memory serves me well, it reached about more than 1 million supporters (through Facebook likes) but ended up with no actual success. But now, as stated in the news, the government will allot Php. 3-Billion in 2015 to provide free public WiFi hotspots around the country (seems the protest is not much of a failure after all).
Reports indicated that this project of DOST will create 50,872 WiFi hotspots that will include public schools mostly and some state colleges. In addition to that, the project will also be implemented on public libraries, hospitals, transport hubs, towns and some provinces.
Plans and ideas regarding the project was discussed and explained by senator Ralph Recto. The senator says that the project was aimed not only to help the need for online researches or increase social connectivity whatever the case would be, but also to help local farmers to know proper price distribution or data transferring when it comes to schools and institutions.
A large-scale project indeed especially in a country where privacy is of much importance but still, free WiFi is FREE WiFi! If this project makes the hit, telecommunications should start planning ahead for the consumers to still dig in their services. Another thing to be concerned is could our government sustain this project? Previous petitions include upgrading the speed of the internet in the country where it ended with no result to date.
Of course, Php. 3-Billion could help the project initially but what about further maintenance and mandatory upgrades? Could our government withstand cyber attacks as well?
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Source: Philstar
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