PH Bags UN Award for Free Internet Access Program in Western Mindanao
Philippine Ambassador Evan P. Garcia (third from left) and Mr. Jeffrey Valdez (rightmost) of the Philippine Mission in Geneva with Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Directors Amelia S. Dean (leftmost), Evamay C. Dela Rosa (second from left), and Cheryl C. Ortega (second from right), and Maria Teresa M. Camba (third from left). (Geneva PM photo)
GENEVA 02 June 2022 – The Philippines was recognized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) during the final week of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum held at the ITU headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland from 30 May to 03 June 2022.
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. The 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, and Amelia S. Dean as well as Ambassador Evan P. Garcia and Mr. Jeffrey Valdez of the Philippine Mission in Geneva.
The World Summit on the Information Society Forum 2022 is the largest annual gathering of the ICT for 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” project of the DICT and the University of the Philippines (UP) Open University was shortlisted as a “champion project” under the Capacity Building Category. END
For more information, visit https://www.genevapm.dfa.gov.ph, https://www.facebook.com/PHinGeneva/, or https://www.instagram.com/phingeneva/.