Characterization of WiFi Signal Range and Bandwidth of the Philippines’ “Free WiFi For All” Project

Internet access has become a necessity in the modern age, its relevance only becoming more evident as the recent global pandemic led to the shift to online education and work. In the Philippines however, access to the internet continues to be difficult for many. The country’s Department of Information and Communications Technology created the Free WiFi For All (FW4A) project to provide free WiFi to the public at thousands of sites across the country. This paper aims to evaluate five of these sites–health centers located in Nangka, Tumana, Parang, Marikina Heights and Sto. Niño in Marikina City–by evaluating the performance of the WiFi network from the perspective of the end users. A mobile application was developed which users may use to collect received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurements and bandwidth tests when they are connected to FW4A sites. The RSSI data collected was used to visualize the signal strength and coverage of the WiFi network on a map, which is viewable on a web app. The bandwidth tests were used to determine whether the sites reached the minimum download speed requirement for FW4A sites. Based on the results recorded by the mobile application, the average range of the signal for the five sites is approximately a 55.2 m by 29.2 m area. Based on the results of the bandwidth measurement tool used, three of the sites, specifically the Nangka, Tumana and Marikina Heights sites, were able to fulfill the 2 Mb/s requirement for Free WiFi For All sites. Meanwhile, the remaining two sites, which were at Parang and Sto. Niño, were unable to fulfill the requirement.