PH bags UN Award for ‘free Internet’ program in Western Mindanao
THE Philippines was recognized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for giving Internet access for education and crisis communication services during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum held at the ITU headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology’s (DICT) “#FreeWifi4All Program for Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi (BASULTA)” was awarded the WSIS Prize by the ITU under the Information and Communication Infrastructure Category.
This project provided connectivity to the entire BASULTA with 275 hotspots linked via the Zamboanga-Basilan Broadband Network, giving 2 million residents of the region Internet access for education and crisis communication services.
Director Maria Teresa M. Camba of the DICT accepted the award. She was joined by DICT Directors Evamay C. Dela Rosa, Cheryl C. Ortega, Amelia S. Dean, Ambassador Evan P. Garcia, and Jeffrey Valdez of the Philippine Mission in Geneva.
The World Summit on the Information Society Forum 2022, held from May 30 to June 3, is the largest annual gathering of the ICT for the development community.
The WSIS Prize was developed as a mechanism to showcase projects that leverage ICT to advance sustainable development.
Last year, the “Enabling Teachers on Remote Learning in the Time of the Pandemic” a project of the DICT and the University of the Philippines (UP) Open University, was shortlisted as a “champion project” under the Capacity Building Category.
