Residents and visitors of Iloilo City can now access the free public Wi-Fi made available by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) through the 12 live sites installed in Iloilo City.
Elry Hortillosa, focal person for the free Wi-Fi project said that these live sites are available at the Iloilo City public library, City Health Office (CHO), Plaza Libertad, Fort San Pedro National High School, Jalandoni Memorial National High School, Bo. Obrero National High School, TCT-AR Foundation Integrated School, Bo, Obrero rural health unit and Sto. Rosario Health Center.
The “PeopleKonek” project, used to be “JuanKonek,” was conceptualized two years ago to “bridge the digital divide of our country,” he said. The concept he said was for citizens to have equal access to the internet.
It seeks to provide free wifi access to public places such as plazas, public libraries, RHUs, hospitals, state universities and colleges (SUCs), airport, seaport and terminals.
Based on the DICT target, the plan is to have 776 live sites within the Visayas Cluster 1 area comprised of Western Visayas, Negros Island Region and Siquijor this June 2017.
In December this year, however, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte would like to have 1,163 live sites, he added.
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Aside from Iloilo City, the DICT is now waiting for the fiber optic link to be connected to the communications box (combox) installed in third to sixth class municipalities.
A memorandum of agreement (MOA) has been signed between the ICT and the first and second class municipalities. They are now in the process of identifying sites where the combox will be installed.
“It (combox) serves as transit point for all network providers,” he explained. Since the DICT has separate contractors for the link, bandwidth and access point, then whoever will come first will just locate the communications box, he added.
One access point can accommodate up to a thousand users a day. One gadget has an allocation of not lower than 256kbps.
It has three levels where a client can connect. The first level has an allocation of 50 megabytes and client can directly connect to the PeopleKonek. This will enable access to social media sites, browsing of government agencies websites and emails.
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The second level is 100 megabytes but it requires an email address of the user to be able to connect.
The third level is 300 megabytes which requires a digital certificate issued by the government.
The digital certificate is another project of DICT under the public key infrastructure network. Under this initiative, all public employees will have digital signature that will allow them to sign documents legally even if they are not in their office.
Meanwhile, the free Wi-Fi project will serve as foundation for the government’s national broadband network, according to Engineer Elmer D. Prudente, officer-in-charge at the Office of the Director.
The national broadband project will pave the way for cheaper internet because the network and the bandwidth is owned by the government. They only have to pay for the maintenance of the network. [By Perla Lena, PNA]
