P-Noy’s uncle bags Wi-Fi connectivity deal

MANILA, Philippines - A relatively new telecommunications firm owned by Antonio “Tonyboy” Cojuangco Jr. bagged contracts to supply “middle mile connectivity” for some 100 cities and municipalities covered by the P1.408-billion Free Wi-Fi Internet in Public Places project of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

Cojuangco is the second cousin of President Aquino’s late mother, former President Corazon Aquino. 

DOST-Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) information officer Roy Espiritu yesterday said AZ Communications Inc. won in a string of public biddings held by the department last month to find private companies that will supply the Internet protocol transport municipalities (IPTM) connectivity for the project, which seeks to put up free Wi-Fi Internet hotspots in 987 third to sixth class municipalities nationwide.

The price for the IPTM contracts of the 100 municipalities, about 40 of which are within Region 1, totals P24,138,000.

AZ Communications was the lone bidder in all the biddings. In some biddings where there were other bidders, the competing suppliers failed to qualify.

Espiritu said the IPTM connectivity refers to the line that will be set up from the 14 points of presence to be put up by ICTO, and the municipal sites that will be provided with free Wi-Fi areas.

The ICTO is having a hard time attracting private sector participation in the tenders they are undertaking for the various lots of the project.

DOST Undersecretary Louis Napoleon Casambre, ICTO executive director, earlier stressed the crucial participation of private telecoms in the success of the program.

Free Wi-Fi in hospitals

In line with the project, the ICTO is installing free Wi-Fi hotspots in seven government hospitals in Metro Manila.

Casambre, in an interview yesterday, said the provision of Wi-Fi hotspots in government hospitals will be easy since there are existing fiber optic lines to these places.

“We’re looking to pilot in some other hospitals,” Casambre told The STAR. “The Free Wi-Fi project leverages on the GovNet. Saves money,” he said.

Last year, ICTO embarked on a fiber optic cable interconnection project that made use of elevated tracks of the Light Rail Transit Line 1 and EDSA-bound Metro Rail Transit to lay out some 190,000 meters of fiber optic cables all over Metro Manila, connecting government offices.

Espiritu said they have finished setting up the hotspot for the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City while work is ongoing at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital and San Lazaro Hospital in Manila and East Avenue Medical Center, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Philippine Heart Center and Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City.

The seven Metro Manila public hospitals are the next beneficiaries of the DOST project after the ICTO opened the free Wi-Fi hotspots in six pilot areas: Rizal Park in Manila, Quezon City Hall, Quezon Memorial Circle, Philippine Coconut Authority building on Elliptical Road and the Land Transportation Office and Social Security System buildings on East Avenue.