ICTO's Casambre says problem is not speed of infra but affordability. pic.twitter.com/hr7y6Dxd0W

— Jacque Manabat (@jacquemanabat) June 28, 2016

MANILA - Around 93 percent of the country may have access to free Wi-Fi services by the end of the year, Science and Technology Undersecretary Louis Napoleon Casambre said Tuesday.

"'Yung remaining 7 percent, 'yan 'yung mahirap pasukin like 'yung Turtle Island, but we will look for other solutions for them," Casambre said.

Free public Wi-Fi services have been rolled out in several locations in Metro Manila, including the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City, the Philippine Coconut Authority, Social Security System office, Land Transportation Office, and at the Rizal Park in Manila.

Recently, Globe Telecom partnered with the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 to roll out free public Wi-Fi services in the station platforms.

READ: Globe signs deal to provide free Wi-Fi in MRT stations

The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Office has asked for a budget of P3.2 billion for 2017 to fund the free Wi-Fi service, more than half of the current total budget for the agency of P5 billion. In the 2015 General Appropriations Act, the project had a total budget of P1.408 billion.

The country's two biggest telcos, Globe and Smart Communications Inc., have expressed support for the project.

The daily usage will be limited by a data cap of 50MB to manage the estimated 117,000 internet users who will access the free Wi-Fi service.

Casambre said the project is open to all distributors and will not be limited to few internet providers.

The ICT is optimistic that affordability and quality of the telecom products will improve with the new public service.

Casambre says 30-50Mbps are available in the market but Filipinos can only afford an average speed of 2.5Mbps

— Jacque Manabat (@jacquemanabat) June 28, 2016