Binay vows free WiFi nationwide if elected

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Jejomar Binay vowed yesterday to provide free wireless Internet access to people across the country if elected president next year.

Binay said he intends to replicate the recently launched Lingkod Kabitenyo, a free WiFi project for schools and households in Cavite.

“If I win the presidency next year, I will replicate this project of Gov. Jonvic (Remulla) in the entire country,” Binay said during the project launch at the Cavite State University campus in Rosario. 

The Vice President said he would partner with the private sector to increase the number of cell sites in the country.

He said there would be more online jobs available for people in the provinces such as transcribers, accountants, artists and designers.

Binay reiterated his plan to create a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) that would oversee the improvement of communications infrastructure in the country. 

The Philippines has one of the slowest Internet connections in Asia, he said.

According to a May 2015 study of Internet metrics provider Ookla, the Philippines has the second slowest average download speed among 22 Asian countries.

It has an average speed of 3.64 megabytes per second (Mbps), which ranked 176th out of 202 countries worldwide.

Globally, the average broadband download speed is 23.3 Mbps, nearly eight times faster than the Philippines.

Only one Asian country, war-torn Afghanistan, had slower Internet speed than the Philippines.