Less-developed towns soon to have free-wifi

DAVAO CITY, March 12 (PIA)--- Internet connection will soon be available in public places such town plazas and transport terminals  in towns classified as 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class municipalities.

Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Mario Montejo revealed in a press conference during the first leg of the Science Nation Tour in Davao City that DOST targeted to roll out such internet connection in those towns by the second half of the year to promote connectivity and consequently boost economic activity .

DOST Information Communication Technology Office (ICT) website revealed that the Free-Wifi Internet Access in Public Places project of DOST was originally  designed “to cover only town plazas of 748 class 4, 5 and 6 municipalities, with a budget of 334 million pesos”.

But with the P3 billion boost in budget  that DOST got after the recent Senate deliberation, the project has been modified to  cover “transport terminals (train, sea and air), school yards, hospital lobbies, national government agencies, public parks and local government unit offices”.

In a  separate interview with the media, Montejo revealed  the benefits of such project  saying a research has found out that “increasing internet connectivity results in 1.3 percent increase in economic growth.”

During the press conference, Montejo  explained that DOST will make use of “TV White Space Technology” which he described as “unused broadcast frequency already tested in Bohol”.

Information posted on DOST ICTO website says that  the TV White Space Technology was “used to provide last mile connectivity in areas affected by the Bohol earthquake and Typhoon Yolanda” and such white space located between broadcast TV channels can be used “to provide wireless data connectivity to remote communities in the country”.

Montejo cited such project as one of the major initiatives that DOST undertook to make science and technology more relevant to the daily lives of the Filipinos especially that S&T department recently was given 400 percent increase in budget.

With such increase in budget, DOST  targets to accommodate 5,000 S&T scholars by the end of 2015. DOST sets to increase the number of Philippine Science High School campuses from nine to 16 campuses by end of 2016.

DOST used to monitor only five major river systems but it took stride to cover 18 major river systems. Montejo even revealed plans of DOST to cover the country’s 285 river systems in its disaster mitigation program.

Other societal needs that DOST sets its direction to be of help are on increasing production yield, transport and even on e-healthcare services.

“We would like to directly benefit the people,” Montejo said.

DOST bids to boost agriculture  production through coming up with technology on peanut de-shelling, mechanization of farm tractor, efficiently raising bangus and tilapia, and that it is also into bio-technology, Mentejo said.   (Jeanevive Duron-Abangan/PIA XI)