Sari-sari stores with WiFi in PH soon, to be funded by Microsoft

WIFI IN SARI SARI STORE. The sponsored WiFi scheme is can help provide connectivity to PH. Photo grabbed from Expatch)

 

One Philippines-based startup won seed funding from tech giant Microsoft Corporation with its idea to install 10,000 WiFi hotspots in the country using TV White Space (TVYS) technology.

Quezon City-based startup WiFi Internactive Network (WIN) was one of the 12 enterprises which bested 248 startups from all over the world that made Microsoft fund them. According to an Inquirer report, this was through Microsoft’s Affordable Access Initiative, which “invests solution that can reduce the cost of Internet access and help more people get connected to World Wide Web.”

According to Philip Zulueta, president and founder of WIN in an email interview through FilAM Star, the US$150,000 seed funding will allow the startup to pilot TVWS technology (wireless data delivery system) and to service small and medium-scale enterprises for one year. This WIN plan will start next July in areas outside Metro Manila such as in Laguna, Bulacan and even in Davao. This TVWS technology can travel 10 kilometers over water through thick foliage and walls making it superior to regular WiFi.

This idea of transforming sari-sari stores (small variety stores in PH) into a network of WiFi hotspots can help the Philippines improve its internet access through affordability and connectivity.

 

Source: Inquirer; Deal Street Asia