By Myrna M. Velasco Free broadband or Wi-Fi connectivity will soon be experienced by the Filipino consumers in government offices and various public places as the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is stepping up on its national broadband rollout via the use of the dark fiber optic cables (FOCs) of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). DICT Undersecretary Eliseo M. Rio Jr. said the agency will start lighting up next year the “free allocation” of NGCP for the government’s free Wi-Fi or Internet connection services. He said the lion’s share of the P23-billion budget sought by DICT for year 2020 will be earmarked for the broadband program that had been sealed with NGCP last year – and capital outlay will include installation of spur link equipment from the backbone (or from the fiber optic cables of NGCP) to the targeted point-of-presence which are the municipalities and the provinces. “For the government broadband program, we are just starting. So for our 2020 budget, we will use bulk of that to light up the free allocation (in the FOCs) of NGCP because that's the start,” he said. Rio indicated that the targeted timeframe on when Filipinos can tangibly feel the social impact of free Wi-Fi connection in specified public places and government offices will be next year – as massive-scale rollout is anticipated to commence around March 2020. He said the bandwidth to be utilized by the government on its free broadband services will be provided by Facebook – replacing the arrangement that the DICT currently has with telecommunications providers like Globe Telecom and Smart Communications. “With the P23-billion budget that we are seeking for next year, we will start building the country’s digital highway – that’s our ‘Build, Build, Build’ program. And based on the DICT’s 2020 vision, we have to make sure the people will already feel improvement on their free broadband connectivity next year,” Rio stressed. The public places anticipated to be served by the government’s Wi-Fi or broadband program at “no charge” shall be the parks, plazas, public libraries, schools, government offices, hospitals, train stations, airports and seaports nationwide, among others. To jumpstart the country’s national broadband program, DICT had cemented a tripartite deal with NGCP and the National Transmission Corporation in June 2018 – so all of these concerned parties shall mutually pursue that goal based on the instruction set out by President Rodrigo Duterte.