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EJ Macababbad - The Philippine Star
December 7, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — A group of senior high school students from Caloocan created a WiFi vending machine that can be paid for not with money but with paper.
PAPER WiFi – an acronym for Paper as Payment for Educational Resource – works by inserting a scratch bond paper on its lid. An infrared sensor then detects the inserted paper and provides one minute of WiFi access at 50 Mbps.
The innovation is the brainchild of Kristoph Abanid, Sean Antano, Ayessa Mae Bataan and Marivine Manalang from Caybiga High School in Bagbaguin, Caloocan. Abanid and Bataan are enrolled in the Humanities and Social Sciences strand, while Antano and Manalang are in the Accountancy and Business Management strand.
The students, guided by their coach, Vea Marie Ibardaloza, developed PAPER WiFi over three months.
“We noticed the lack of internet access in our school, so we want to help in providing an accessible connection,” Bataan told reporters. “We also want to improve the behavior of students so that instead of crumpling paper, they’ll collect it to access free WiFi.”
The Year Two report of the Second Congressional Commission on Education acknowledged that teachers nationwide are facing significant challenges to undergo digital transformation due to “insufficient access to software, hardware and reliable internet infrastructure.”
Chedita Pericon, the Senior High School department head at Caybiga High School, acknowledged the state of internet access in their area.
“It’s fluctuating,” Pericon said. “We have free WiFi in school, but it’s not reliable all the time.”
The students just used PAPER WiFi in their classroom last October and so far, it has helped their classmates during research class.
Abanid said the papers collected are either recycled or sold to a junk shop to earn money and sustain the system.
The students plan to improve the lid where the paper is inserted because currently, PAPER WiFi only accepts bond paper or other varieties of similar width.
Bataan said they are also looking into adding a shredder to the innovation to make paper easier to recycle.
The group is eyeing a patent application for the infrared sensor they utilized.
PAPER WiFi is one of the grassroots innovations exhibited at the Grassroots Innovation and Circular Economy exposition at the Mariano Marcos State University in Batac City during the National Science, Technology and Innovation Week of the Department of Science and Technology.
