FREE wifi is accessible nationwide but only a limited number of Filipinos have actual access, according to Undersecretary Ramon “RJ” Jacinto of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)Speaking at The Manila Times forum on Digital Transformation: Innovating and Adapting Amid Challenges on Thursday, Jacinto said that 40 percent of Filipinos don’t have smartphones. As of June 21, there are 4,194 sites nationwide but Jacinto presented a problem: “You have the internet, who’s going to receive it? Maybe we bring in 10 million smartphones and sell them through [the] barangay (village),” Jacinto said. Jacinto said that if the smartphones were given to people for free , they will just resell it to other people, “They might just sell it to other people. The program is expected to have 10,000 sites up by the end of the year and 104,000 hotspots by 2023.

Source: Manila Times July 30, 2020 17:03 UTC