Cut red tape

The Senators resumed floor debate last week on Senate Bill No. 1277, or the proposed Free Internet in Public Places Act. Neophyte Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV is the principal author and sponsor of SB 1277. In filing this bill, Aquino cited the proposed legislation is supposed to fast track the issuance of permit to telecommunications companies (telcos) to put up more cell sites all over the Philippines.

As chairman of the Senate committees on Education, and Science and Technology, Aquino’s bill has practically secured approval of SB 1277. A total of 17 Senators signed Senate Committee Report No. 19 which endorsed for plenary approval the proposed bill on Free Internet Access in Public Places Act. The bill though is still pending for approval on second reading.

The proposed legislation seeks to provide free internet access in all national and local government offices; public schools, including state colleges and universities; public hospitals and health centers; public parks, plazas, and libraries; and airports, seaports, and transport terminals.

Under this legislative measure, the newly created Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will be mandated to craft a plan and a timeline for the rollout of this program. The program shall involve the establishment of the infrastructure, installation of equipment, and the creation of an online platform and application necessary to provide free internet access to the public.

Once approved into law, there will be free internet services in these public places all across the Philippines to connect the islands to one another and to the rest of the world.

As of last inventory, the neophyte Senator noted there are over 20,000 cell sites in the Philippines. Or, Aquino noted with dismay, this is equivalent to only 52.6 percent of Filipinos so far have access to the Internet.

If we consider income distribution factor in the Philippines, however, the internet penetration rate across the country could be much lower, at 40 percent, according to industry estimates.

Filipinos lead the world in surfing the internet by spending the most time on social media, according to a recent report called Digital in 2017. The report cited internet users from the Philippines spent an average of over four hours a day on social media such as Facebook.

Commenting on the report, Smart Communications and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) spokesman Ramon Isberto noted the results did not come as a surprise, citing our country has long been known as the texting capital of the world. “It’s probably due to the same cultural dynamics that made us the text capital of the world. Filipinos like to keep in touch,” Isberto pointed out.

Just how many more cell sites are needed that this proposed Free Internet Access Law would be able to deliver?

Even before the Senate took this initiative, former president and now Mayor of Manila Joseph Estrada had long provided for free internet access in key areas around the city.

In 2013 when he took office at City Hall, Mayor Estrada made sure free public internet access were installed in areas where most of the schools and universities are located in Manila. Also called as “hotspots,” Mayor Estrada initially tested the free internet access installed at waiting sheds in the entire stretch of España Boulevard in Sampaloc, Manila.

A hotspot is a physical location where people may obtain internet access, typically using Wi-Fi technology. (Wi-Fi is the trademark name of a popular wireless networking technology that uses radio waves to provide wireless high-speed Internet and network connections.) Internet access is popularly and loosely called as Wi-Fi. But internet access is a cellular network using WLAN, or wireless local area network (WLAN) via a router connected to an internet service provider (ISP) like telcos.

Public hotspots are available in many business establishments for the use of their customers in many developed urban areas in the Philippines and throughout the world for that matter. Coffee shops and hotels, in fact, offer them as part of their services.

When Mayor Estrada assumed a fund-short city government, he entered into public-private partnership (PPP) project to put up these hotspots in key areas in Manila.

A total of 42 permanent LTE WiFi routers were initially installed in several public waiting sheds all over Manila that were upgraded in the process. Each shed reportedly cost P1.2 million.

A speed test of these routers conducted revealed that the hotspot showed the Wi-fi speed can run up to 40 megabits per second. It depends upon the strength of signals coming from ISP like Smart Telecoms and Globe Telecoms, the biggest telcos in our country.

The image of both Mayor Estrada and his erstwhile Vice Mayor Isko Moreno served as backdrop with the companies’ advertisements as part of the PPP deal. That was when Mayor Estrada and his Vice Mayor Isko were still politically allied with each other. The two had long parted ways a few months after last year’s elections. But that’s another story.

The better story for the city of Manila is the installation of the newest cell site of Globe Telecom rising in Binondo, Manila soon by the first quarter this year. Yoly Crisanto, Globe Telecom senior vice president for corporate communications, credited Mayor Estrada for having fast-tracked the implementation of Globe’s latest expansion project.

Crisanto cited Mayor Estrada’s leadership in cutting through the bureaucratic maze of getting permits at the City Hall for their newest cell site. Local government units (LGUs) require at least 25 to 30 kinds of permit before any cell site can be put up in their areas. Upon learning about their predicaments, Mayor Estrada ordered all concerned City Hall department heads to sit down with Globe Telecom representatives and process all their respective requirements within reasonable time, not exceeding one week.

This is the same marching order of President Rodrigo Duterte to cut red tape in all national government agencies, including LGUs all over the country. Also having served longest as Mayor like Estrada before he got elected into office at Malacanang, President Duterte knows where he is coming from when he declared war against red tape as this is the breeding ground of corruption. No wonder an internet access bill is still needed to be passed into law.