The administration of President Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos targets the 2026 completion of its national fiber backbone project, as well as its efforts to bring free WiFi access to communities and lure investors to join their internet connectivity projects.
Per the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary Jeffrey Dy, the Marcos admin is working on two connectivity projects: the National Fiber Backbone and free WiFi.
Dy said the National Fiber Backbone is already 70% complete in Luzon. He said the goal is to complete the network connecting Luzon to Mindanao by 2026.
They are also inviting investors to build additional cable landing stations off the tip of Mindanao for redundancy as most of the landing stations are concentrated in Luzon and a few in Visayas.
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The government’s fiber backbone is going to be a secondary platform on top of the commercial fiber by public telecommunications company. It will be 28,000 kilometers long that will reach the entire country.
Now that 70% is completed in Luzon, the DICT will begin Phases Two and Three of the project, with procurement activities starting this year to next year for Visayas and Mindanao.
As for the free WiFi, Dy said that they plan to put up 110,000 sites by the end of 2026 or the middle of 2027. It will cost about Php50 billion.
The Free WiFi for All project is in accordance with a law that mandates the DICT to provide free WiFi access to public places like public schools, state universities, parks, and municipal halls.