DOTC renews call for broadband network project
- From: ** <**@.org>
- Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:07:54 +0800
DOTC renews call for broadband network project
By Beverly T. Natividad
Inquirer
Last updated 10:21pm (Mla time) 08/21/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippines needs to implement the national broadband
network (NBN) project now to be able to compete with its neighbors in the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which are already establishing
their own broadband networks to modernize government services, according to the
Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).
In a briefing on Tuesday, DOTC Assistant Secretary Lorenzo Formoso III said that
for all the criticism of the NBN project, its modernizing impact on the
bureaucracy would put the country in a better position to compete with other
ASEAN economies like those of Malaysia and Vietnam.
As it is, the Philippines has been left behind in the race to establish an
?e-government? and further delays in the implementation of the NBN would surely
leave the country in the dust, he said.
?From a technological standpoint, the NBN is badly needed. It is urgent. The
countries we?re competing with are starting to roll out their own broadband
networks. For the Philippines to be competitive, we have to put in the right
technology,? said Formoso.
He said Malaysia and Vietnam have been preparing their broadband network
roll-outs in 2007, with Kuala Lumpur laying out a capital outlay of $1 billion.
Even Burma and Cambodia, countries generally considered ?backward? compared to
the Philippines, are already contemplating implementing their own broadband
networks to modernize government systems, according to Formoso.
An e-government, as defined by multilateral lending agencies like the World Bank
and Asian Development Bank, refers to the use of information and communication
technologies (ICT) by government agencies to enable more efficient and
cost-effective government as well as allow greater public access to information.
Formoso said the primary purpose of putting up the NBN would be to ?provide
connectivity down to the village level.?
As an example, once the pipeline is completed, satellite offices of the National
Statistics Office in the provinces would be able to exchange documents and
communicate seamlessly with the NSO main office in Manila to refer to important
documents without delay.
Formoso said the government had the capability to roll out the NBN project in
the next three years, as it would only need to refurbish and utilize the
existing telecommunications facilities of government to create this broadband
network.
He said there would be no danger of the project becoming a ?white elephant? as
the DOTC had the capacity to maintain the system upon the departure of its
Chinese partner.
?Remember that the DOTC, notwithstanding a limited budget, has been running the
telephone system of this country since the time when no private firm wanted to
undertake it. We are all the more capable of handling it now since the newer
system [for the NBN] will be easier to maintain and operate because of newer
technology,? said Formoso.
The government recently announced plans to build two state-owned IT backbones,
at a cost of $800 million, to create a cyber corridor in the country. One of the
projects is the $329-million NBN while the other is a $460-million plan to build
a satellite-based IT backbone for the cyber education program of the education
department.
Both would make use of Chinese technology and financing.
The University of the Philippines School of Economics, in a recent paper,
opposed the proposed cyber corridor project, arguing that it was unnecessary and
a waste of funds.
The study, authored by economics professors Raul V. Fabella and Emmanuel S. de
Dios, pointed out, among other things, the lack of a feasibility study behind
the project despite claims of urgency to build the broadband backbone.
It said the government was embarking on a project to provide a broadband
?highway? when most of the final users, the government offices in remote
provinces, had yet to get computers to serve as their ?vehicles? to travel the
cyber highway.
But Formoso said the UP paper on the NBN project did not look into the details
of the NBN project enough to criticize it.
What it did was quote news items about the NBN project and did not really study
the nitty-gritty of the project, he said.
?To me, it was just an opinion piece,? said Formoso.
.
- Prev by Date: MALAYSIA: Daily terminates two critical columns
- Next by Date: Re: Have you really been fair, Pak Lah?
- Previous by thread: MALAYSIA: Daily terminates two critical columns
- Next by thread: New Converts and Dressing Properly
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
|
