Senators in the Philippines are actively involved in the Internet-for-all project, in order to provide public areas, such as schools and universities, with free Wi-Fi access. Currently, more than 43% of the Filipino population browse the Internet, and these projects aim at further improving the Internet penetration in the country.
Since the time the “Free Wi-Fi Internet Access in Public Places” project of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) was launched, in July 2015, many initiatives have been put in place in the Philippines to improve free Wi-Fi access in public areas.The project, originally intended to enable free Wi-Fi in in municipalities’ town plazas, was expanded at the end of November 2015 to enable Wi-Fi in other public areas such as schools, hospitals, train stations, airports, seaports and parks.
The Senators of the Philippines believe that Internet should be at everyone’s disposal and have started many initiatives in order to make the Internet-for-all idea a reality. In addition, the economy of the country can largely benefit from an increased connectivity. According to a World Bank study,a 1.38% increase in Gross Domestic Price can be reached by virtue of every 10% increase in broadband Internet connectivity. At present, Internet penetration in the Philippines is 43.5%, that is to say more than 44,000,000 of the total 102,3 million Filipinos use the Internet.
An effective way to boost the economy of the country is to provide Filipinos with free Wi-Fi access in educational institutes, so as to improve collaborative and interactive learning. In this respect, Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV drafted the Bill 1050 last August, according to which academic institutions should be provided free Wi-Fi access points. Last September, the senator pointed out that only 26% of public schools in the Philippines have access to the Internet and that it was very important to allow students and teacher to benefit from free Wi-Fi, so that they could go online to develop their learning and do relevant research. For this reason, he created the K-12 Basic Education Program, which adopts a tablet-based learning system in schools.
Other Senators have also moved in the same direction. Last March Senator Emmanuel Pacquiao introduced the House Bill 3591 that supported the installation of Wi-Fi hotspots in state colleges and universities. In the meantime, Senator Francis Pangilinan also drafted a similar bill, Bill 58 to provide public areas, academic institutions included, with free Wi-Fi. All these programs have a democratic goal in common, as the Web is a useful source of information that can reach all people, independently of their social class.
Providing educational institutions with free Wi-Fi is an effective way to improve the quality of learning. Multi-vendor softwares like Tanaza offer the opportunity to easily install free Wi-Fi in schools and universities. Tanaza provides schools, training institutes, colleges and universities with efficient tools to manage and control the Wi-Fi networks, all the devices, the SSIDs and people connected through one centralized dashboard. Tanaza’s Wi-Fi is works with a wide range of access points and is 100% compatible with any client device, including the latest laptops, tablets and smartphones.
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