Free wi-fi on EDSA, national roads proposed in Senate bill

Free Internet surfing while stuck in this may not be a very appealing idea. Nevertheless, Senator Ralph Recto has filed a bill mandating free wi-fi access on EDSA and other roads and public areas.

You may be stuck on EDSA, but at least you’ll have free wifi. The free wifi is the idea behind a bill that seeks to provide free public wireless Internet access on national roads, as well as public schools, buildings, parks, and rail transit stations in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Senate Bill 2232 also known  as the “Free Metro Manila Wifi Act of 2014” was filed by Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, and it mandates the government to provide public buildings, parks and national roads in NCR “with broadband hotspots that will offer stable Internet connection.”

The areas that should be provided with broadband hotspots, under the bill, are the following:

Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa) and other national roads

Tollways and expressways

Public transport terminals

All national and local government offices

Public health services and hospitals

Public elementary and high schools, and state colleges and universities

Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Terminals I, II, III and IV)

Public libraries

Port of Manila; and

Rail transit stations (LRT Line 1, MRT Line 2, MRT Line 3, and PNR south rail)

Recto explains in the bill that, “For the Philippines to further establish itself as an emerging economy, a public broadband Internet infrastructure must be in place beginning with NCR.”

“Providing free Internet access to public buildings and facilities in the national capital will also ensure that our growing labor force will be updated with employment opportunities,” he said.

Free wireless Internet connection, Recto said, will also ensure that the populace—beginning in the capital— will be equipped with and honed to using key facilities needed to build an innovative, progressive, and rapidly digitizing economy.

“Allowing free wireless Internet connection in key public places in NCR means providing access to the undeserved in our society, including getting low-income people online,” the senator added.

The intent of the bill is certainly laudable, but as we know from experience, free wifi as provided by private establishments such as malls vary widely in quality, and by no means guarantees useful Internet access.

With report by Maila Ager