Free wifi project to become a white elephant? DICT hopes to save deal with UNDP

By Billy Begas

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is in talks with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to prevent the shutdown of 882 free WiFi sites in the country.

During Tuesday’s hearing of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, DICT Undersecretary Manny Caintic said the agency is considering the economic viability of the proposal submitted by the UNDP and its contractor Speedcast.

“We are contemplating that apart from the option of returning back the money to the national treasury which will effectively render the budget unusable because it is 2018 GAA (General Appropriations Act) we are now contemplating in amicable way, perhaps UNDP can award to a local contractor the continuance of the sites that already been installed and running,” Caintic said.

The DICT has contracted UNDP in 2018 to put up 6,000 free WiFi sites that were divided into three phases.

UNDP contractor Speedcast failed to deliver the 3,000 sites under the Phase 1 completing only 882 sites. Phase 1 cost $14.4 million.

Terminating the contract for Phase 1 may render the 882 active sites useless the reason why the DICT is trying to make some arrangement with the UNDP to continue the operations of the sites.

Phase 2 did not push through and the UNDP has already returned the $5.88 million payment to the Bureau of Treasury.

Caintic said Phase 3 worth $2.967 million will continue. The UNDP contracted PLDT for this phase last April.

“On Phase 3 we have intimated to UNDP that we are inclined to continue with the contract for phase 3 with PLDT for 1,000 sites in the amount of $2.967 million the award was done in April of this year and we are inclined to push UNDP to release the notice to proceed henceforth,” Caintic added.

As of June 2, there are a total of 9,201 live and operational free WiFi sites in the country being used by more than 6 million unique users

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