DOST: New broadband network is not a ZTE

Published : Tuesday, September 13, 2011 00:00
Written by : Jessa Bayrante

Parrying the increasing number of oppositions to the new government broadband network, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) secretary Mario Montejo said in a statement on Monday that the proposed project would enhance efficiency in government operations and will not turn into another ZTE scandal.

Montejo clarified that the government network under study is only a part of an overall digital strategy for the country now being developed by the DOST through its Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO).

“We are guided by the Philippine Digital Strategy that was crafted through extensive consultations with the different ICT stakeholders,” Montejo said.

“Once the strategy is in place, the DOST will pursue four priority programs in the areas of: e-government, Internet-for-all, ensuring further growth of the ICT-BPO industry, and cyber-security,” he stated.

The DOST, together with relevant government agencies, will implement e-government strategies and programs to achieve transparency at all levels of government using broadband, primarily through a fiber-optic network, according to Montejo.

“Broadband will forever change the way we receive services from government, how we teach our school children, how government will provide health care and save people from natural disasters,” the DOST chief stated.

“We hope to see the day when Filipino job-seekers applying for work here and abroad need not endure agonizing queues just to obtain all the clearances they need because all the requirements like NBI and other documents can be secured online,” added Montejo.

The DOST said there is also need to provide adequate bandwidth throughout the country to ensure ICT access in underserved and un-served areas, especially in schools.

“We propose bandwidth speeds of 4 Mbps for schools so that schoolchildren will fully enjoy the benefits of interactive learning. Currently, the access of Philippine schools to the Internet has a speed of 64-512 kb. In Thailand, by comparison, public schools get an average of 10 Mbps,” Montejo noted.

The DOST secretary said the “goals of improving e-governance and providing Internet accessibility for all are achievable through an efficient, high-capacity, high- speed, and secure information highway that should be available and affordable to everyone.”

“Broadband is definitely a necessity. The challenge now is for government to address this requirement by way of a technically superior and more importantly, cost-efficient solution. This is what the on-going DOST study is all about,” Montejo said.

The DOST study, he said, is looking into different approaches, which include:

1) using existing yet underutilized government fiber-optic and other assets,
2) bidding out to the private sector the opportunity to co-develop these assets and maintain a broadband infrastructure, and
3) exploring innovative ways on how government can possibly leverage these assets in dealing with existing commercial broadband network operators to achieve its goal of a cost-efficient, high-speed, high capacity broadband

“The DOST study is considering the use of existing government fiber optic assets and microwave facilities that are currently underutilized to serve as backbone for a possible government broadband infrastructure. These are found in existing Transco transmission lines, MRT and LRT transmission lines, and Telof facilities laid all over the country.”.

“To ignore these underutilized assets is not sound economics. While other countries are presently toiling to lay their fiber optic network for broadband use, we have an extensive fiber optic network already in place that has tremendous capacity potential but which remains untapped and under-utilized. Di ba nakakapanghinayang?” Montejo said.

The DOST is likewise looking at the private sector to support and maintain the broadband infrastructure, he said.

“Definitely, the private sector would normally always run these things better. That is why we see them playing a key role in this possible undertaking. We have made prior consultations with all the major telco players and heard no objections so far. They are even excited about the prospects of a government network increasing the overall broadband use in the country with the addition of potential capacity coming from the untapped fiber-optic assets of government.” Montejo clarified.

Montejo said the DOST is also considering options such the Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU), considered a best practice worldwide, for government to secure its high-capacity, high-speed, secure broadband requirement.

Indefeasible right of use (IRU) is a contractual agreement between the operators of a communications cable or a fiber optic network, and a client.

The government can either be a preferred client of a telco owning a fiber optic network or a wielder of an IRU by virtue of its assets. The IRU allows a long-term lease — usually about 25 years — of a fiber optic cable, the DOST said.
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