Marcos admin vows high-speed Internet across Philippines by 2026

MANILA, Philippines — The Marcos administration announced an ambitious plan for a comprehensive national fiber backbone connectivity by the year 2026. 

The plan includes providing free Wi-Fi access to all barangays and inviting investors to participate in the Internet connectivity projects.

During a news forum in Quezon City on Saturday, Information and Communications Technology Undersecretary Jeffrey Dy explained the administration's two connectivity initiatives — Free Wi-Fi and the National Fiber Backbone.

“The National Fiber Backbone is now 70% (completed in Luzon. Ang target is by 2026 matapos natin from North Luzon to Mindanao and hopefully we are also inviting investors so that they can establish additional cable landing stations off the tip of Mindanao as a redundancy kasi most of our cable landing stations are actually concentrated in Luzon and then there are a few in Visayas,” Dy said. 

(The National Fiber Backbone is now 70% [completed] in Luzon. The target is to finish the project by 2026 from North Luzon to Mindanao and hopefully we are also inviting investors so that they can establish additional cable landing stations off the tip of Mindanao as a redundancy since most of our cable landing stations are actually concentrated in Luzon and then there are a few in Visayas.)

The national program involves building a government-owned fiber network, in addition to commercial networks fiber networks provided by telecommunication companies such as PLDT, Globe and Converge. It will cover 28,000 kilometers across the country.

With 70% of the project done in Luzon, the DICT will move to Phases Two and Three, expanding to Visayas and Mindanao in the coming years.

For the free Wi-Fi initiative, the target is 110,000 sites by the end of 2026. This will cost around P50 billion. 

The Free Wi-Fi for All Project is mandated by law to provide free Wi-Fi in public spaces, such as parks, municipal halls, public schools, state universities and colleges (SUCs) and other facilities.