Ham radio soon to be useless because of BPL

hi guys,

imagine interference on your radio coming in at 40db over S9. this may soon be a reality, making ham radio and other radio services useless.

Meralco and PLDT will soon be testing BPL or broadband over power lines. this will definitely cause interference on the amateur bands. http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view/20090630-213203/PLDT-taps-Meralco-for-new-venture

the Meralco franchise is huge. The 9,337 sq. km. franchise area covers 23 cities and 88 municipalities including Metro Manila, the entire provinces of Bulacan, Rizal and Cavite; parts of the provinces of Laguna, Quezon and Batangas; and 17 barangays in Pampanga. Electrification level in the franchise is 97%. http://www.meralco.com.ph/Corporate/services/franchise.htm

imagine an a huge antenna covering 9,337 sq. km. imagine how huge a signal that will be. it will not only cause interference in that are, it can spill over to other areas, especially if the propagation is good.

so, you do not live in a Meralco franchise area? what will stop your power company from venturing into BPL? how sure are you that they will not go into BPL?

we should put a stop to BPL now. i am not against technology. however, there are "cleaner" technologies for the internet transmission like wifi, cable, fiber optic, telephone line, etc....

radio is not only a hobby. it is useful during emergencies and disasters. of course we know that because we are hams. other services like government, the military, commercial enterprises use radio daily and during disasters.

what should we do? well, we can start by writing NTC, PLDT, Meralco and its officers.

for your convenience, i have prepared a draft letter. cut and paste and,fill in your name and contact information and then email or mail to them.

for love of ham radio, very truly yours,

Eddie Valdez DU1EV

Dear Sir or Madam:

I have read that PLDT and Meralco will be testing broadband over power line BPL in the Malabon area starting August 2009.

I strongly oppose the use of power lines for broadband because of the harmful interference it causes on radio frequencies. The interference will wreak havoc on the HF and VHF bands of the radio spectrum and this will affect commercial, government, military and amateur communications.

I am not opposed to technology. Presently, there are other means for transmission of broadband which do not cause interference like telephone lines, cable, wifi, and fiber optic.

Until and unless BPL technology improves and will not cause interference to the radio spectrum, I shall continue to oppose BPL.

I therefore respectfully request that your plan of using power lines for broadband be terminated.

Very truly yours,

YOUR NAME

YOUR CONTACT INFO

SEND TO oh.acct.mgmt@meralco.com.ph

customercare@pldt.com

commissioner@ntc.gov.ph depcom1@ntc.gov.ph

http://www.meralco.com.ph/Corporate/services/franchise.htm

http://www.pldt.com.ph/support/consumers/Pages/CosumerSupportHome.aspx

Eddie Valdez

DU1EV

Mobile broadband a boon to society

Mobile broadband a boon to society, enterprises and individuals, says Ericsson CEO

After posting strong consumer uptake of mobile broadband in 2007, the world has yet to see and realize the true power of this technology, which when harnessed to its full potential can help contribute to productivity and enhance the quality of life to benefit society, enterprises and individuals.


Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and CEO of Ericsson, the world’s leading provider of telecommunications equipment and related services to mobile and fixed networks operators globally, speaking at the recent Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona said, that mobile broadband benefits society in more ways than one – including the current drive to reduce travel and shrink carbon footprints – as a pitch in the global effort to help conserve the environment.

"It is important, if you really want to have a society that works, to use communications to reduce travel and make this planet work for the long perspective," he said.

Svanberg believes that key to quality of life issue is sustainability, which he adds has become business critical today, with energy optimization driving competitiveness and dominating global political agendas.

Proudly proclaiming that his company has taken the lead in this area, he mentions some of Ericsson’s energy optimization innovations such as innovative radio base station designs like the Tower Tube and other alternative energy solutions that have been rolled out to customers to help reduce total cost of ownership, while at the same time improving the environmental performance of mobile network growth worldwide.

In 2006 Ericsson reduced the power consumption of its latest generation of WCDMA base stations by 35 percent, and has pioneered the introduction of many alternative energy sources such as solar power and biofuels in the telecom sector, to make mobile telephony economically and environmentally sustainable in emerging markets.

In a related development, Ericsson announced in a press release at the event, its new hybrid energy solution for diesel and batteries that’s been deployed by Celtel Uganda, first operator to install this solution. It is a self-contained power solution that enables a parameter setting for the batteries’ optimal charging and discharging levels, thereby extending the lifetime of the battery and the generator. The solution significantly reduces energy consumption in mobile networks outside the electricity grid, cutting network operating costs by up to 50 percent.

At the same event, the Swedish telecom giant took the occasion to unveil its groundbreaking next-generation radio base stations, the RBS 6000 series, the smallest energy efficient site solution available in the market today that supports GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA and LTE in a single package. Its compact design requires only 25 percent of the space used by previous generations while at the same time doubling capacity. The RBS 6000 series reduces power consumption by 20 to 65 percent, compared with existing Ericsson radio base stations, and offers a simple, energy-efficient site solution that helps operators reduce costs across all areas of ownership.

Breakthrough year for mobile broadband, personal TV

"2007 was a breakthrough year for mobile broadband where we’ve seen a strong uptake in 3G and HSPA (High Speed Pocket Access) technology adoption," he said.

According to the Svanberg, there are at present 174 HSPA networks in commercial operation in 76 countries, majority of which are operating at 3.6Mbps or higher speeds. (HSPA is the natural evolution for GSM/WCDMA, the technology that is used in over 86 percent of the world’s wireless networks today). To date there some 180 million WCDMA subscriptions, including HSPA, a figure that is growing by 6.5 million per month.

He said that the uptake of 3G and HSPA continues to be strong in regions that have networks operating commercially. This year, Ericsson expects to see 3G/HSPA networks rolled out in Latin America, Middle East, Africa and Russia, with India coming on board by end of the year.

"We see that in the 3G networks that we monitor in Europe, data traffic now exceeds voice and accelerates quickly, from between 50 to 1500% depending on the operator’s strategy," Svanberg said.

With the HSPA ecosystem growing fast -- over 400 mobile terminals, embedded modules and personal consumer devices provided by 80 suppliers are available today, and with some 250 companies are delivering HSPA, including operators, suppliers and service providers, Svanberg opines that the unrivalled breadth and depth of the ecosystem available today offers unmatched economies of scale that will benefit all players.

Meanwhile, the Ericsson CEO pointed out the shift that is happening in the television viewing habit of consumers, one that is moving from broadcast to personalized television experience.

"We are now stepping into the individual television experience and we aim for a top position," he said. "Today, we are moving from the classic way to watch television, to more interactive and then to the individual TV experience. We believe that Ericsson is the only company with a complete end-to-end offering when it comes to mobile TV and IPTV, and we understand the consumer."

Svanberg said television is a major opportunity for operators to provide consumers a true multimedia experience and Ericsson has a complete offering, strengthened by its acquisitions of Redback, Marconi, Entrisphere and TANDBERG Television, and its services offering. "The key differentiations between today’s television experience and tomorrow’s are IMS - which is a vital part of the seamless television experience." Red R. Samar - Manila Bulletin

Globe, Smart say they can do ZTE’s job

By Efren L. Danao, Manila Times Senior Reporter

Telecommunications companies told the Senate blue-ribbon committee on Tuesday that they can provide the last-mile broadband connectivity of the country and denied claims of the government that none of them was interested in the project.

Executives of Smart and Globe said at the resumption of hearing on the aborted $330-million project that the government need not enter into a contract with a Chinese firm for the broadband project because they already cover almost the entire country. They refuted the earlier statements of Assistant Secretary Lorenzo Formoso 3rd of the Department of Transportation and Communications that the government was forced to pursue the broadband project with foreign partners because no local telecommunications company was interested in it.

During the hearing, the blue ribbon headed by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, asked former socioeconomic planning Secretary Romulo Neri to show cause why he should not be cited in contempt for not attending the hearing. It also decided to refer to the Senate Committee on Public Order and Illegal Drugs the alleged assassination plot against Jose “Joey” de Venecia 3rd after lawyer Raul Lambino corroborated it. De Venecia, son of House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., blew the whistle on alleged brokers for the broadband deal—among them President Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, and resigned Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr.

Rodolfo Salalima, vice-president for operations of Globe, and Mon Isberto of Smart said their respective companies were not approached in any way about the broadband project. If they were invited to bid, they would have done so and would have been capable of providing the service, they added.

Isberto said Smart already has cell sites in all but a dozen of the 1,600 towns in the country, that it is offering wireless broad­band services in 43 percent of the country, and that it has wired broadband services in 116 cities and major municipalities outside of Metro Manila.

Salalima said they have 7,000 cell sites covering about 80 percent of the country.

Globe and Smart said they were asked to participate only after President Arroyo had already canceled the contract with ZTE Corp., the Chinese firm that won the broadband project.

Cayetano said he found the testimony of the telecommunications companies “very revealing.”

“Imagine, the government will be spending $329 million without even asking local telcos if they can do it,” he said.

Cayetano said the government has been arguing that the project is needed but it has never maintained that it could save on the project cost because it is available locally.

He formed a technical group that included the telecommunications companies to go over the technical aspects of the project and determine if there was overpricing. The work of the group is facilitated by the rejection of ZTE’s request that its documents on pricing be considered proprietary.

Sen. Manuel Roxas, who moved for the opening of the documents, said committee members may now share the documents with any technical people they might want to consult so that they could make an informed decision.

Meanwhile, the Senate inched closer to an expected confrontation with Malacañang after the blue ribbon required Neri to show cause why he should not be cited in contempt for failing to appear at the hearing.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita wrote a letter to Cayetano asking the committee to dispense with the testimony of Neri because he had already testified and “exhaustively” discussed the broad­band project on September 26. Ermita invoked executive privilege in explaining why Neri could not testify on his conversations with Mrs. Arroyo regarding the project.

Cayetano also noted that Neri had already made disclosures on his conversations with the President in media interviews so Ermita’s explanation does not wash. He directed the committee secretary to draft a letter asking Neri to show cause why he should not be cited in contempt for not appearing at the hearing.

“If the committee won’t accept his explanation, then the next step is to have a vote on holding him in contempt,” the blue-ribbon chairman said.

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile asked for an immediate vote since that is where the committee appeared to be heading, but Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Cayetano said they have to accord Neri due process.

The blue ribbon also decided that the Senate should pursue the investigation of the alleged threat on the life of the de Venecias. Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Sen. Rodolfo Biazon said the alleged plot could be an attempt to silence a vital witness in a Senate investigation.

Lawyer Raul Lambino, a legal adviser of the Speaker, corroborated the earlier testimony of Joey de Venecia that retired Gen. Jaime de los Santos had warned of an assassination plot against him and his father, allegedly hatched by Transportation Secretary Leandro Men­doza, Land Transportation Office Director Reynaldo Berroya and prisons Director Ricardo Dapat.

Cayetano said Berroya and Dapat previously confirmed their attendance but called Tuesday morning that they were sick. The young de Venecia also begged off from the hearing, saying he had a prior commitment that could not be rescheduled and that the secretariat might have made a mistake in saying that businessman Enrique Razon confirmed his attendance.

“We have another hearing tomorrow involving another Razon, Gen. Avelino Razon, and our staff might have mistaken him for Enrique Razon,” Cayetano explained.

Favila ‘at a loss’ over House summons on NBN deal

By Maila Ager
INQUIRER.net


MANILA, Philippines -- Trade Secretary Peter Favila said he was “a little bit at a loss” as to why he was being summoned by the House of Representatives to answer questions on the $329 million national broadband network contract between the government and the ZTE Corp. of China.

Appearing at a budget hearing in the House Thursday, Favila pointed to the Department of Transportation and Communication (DoTC) as the agency tasked to handle the NBN project.

“In fact, I received an invitation sent by the Office of the Speaker to a question hour and I already replied to the Speaker’s office that I did not get the permission to attend to this question hour,” Favila said, responding to Deputy Minority Floor Leader Roilo Golez when questioned about his absence Wednesday.

“But really, I am a little bit at a loss here because this is DoTC, as I understand, the DoTC is the implementing agency,” he said.

Favila said he had written Speaker Jose de Venecia to inquire why he was being summoned to a question hour. But he said he had not received an answer from the Speaker up to this day.

“Not that I’m questioning the Speaker but I’m just seeking a clarification,” he said.

As trade secretary, Favila explained that his responsibility was to look after the country’s bilateral relations with other trading partners in neighboring countries.

Wednesday’s question hour did not push through as the House decided to cancel its session because of the promulgation of the verdict on former president Joseph Estrada.

The Supreme Court issued an indefinite temporary restraining order (TRO) over the NBN agreement over allegations of corruption and had asked the government to comment on a petition filed by a losing bidder.

No deal yet with ZTE, only supplier’s contract--Arroyo execs

No deal yet with ZTE, only supplier’s contract--Arroyo execs


By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net


MANILA, Philippines -- There is no contract yet between the government and China's ZTE Corporation for the implementation of the $330-million national broadband network project, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s officials insisted Thursday.

Former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri said what was signed in April was a prospective supplier's contract.

Neri, who now temporarily sits as chairman of the Commission on Higher Education, said the supplier's contract would take effect only once a loan agreement was signed, adding that a loan agreement "will have an effect of an executive agreement" between the Philippines and China.

In a separate interview, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves corroborated Neri’s statement.

The Supreme Court issued an indefinite temporary restraining order on the project last Tuesday in response to a petition filed by Amsterdam Holding Inc. (AHI), one of the losing bidders, which claimed that not only their rights but those of the Filipino people would be violated if the project would push through.

But Neri reiterated that "there was no contract so to speak."

Teves added that both countries were still at the "talking stage, without going into the nitty-gritty yet."

Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza and ZTE vice president Yu Yong signed the contract on April 21 during the President’s visit to Boao, China. The contract was reported stolen shortly after the signing but was later reconstituted and re-signed.

Mendoza dodges solons’ questions on broadband deal

By Maila Ager - INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza has invoked the sub judice rule to evade questions on the $329 million national broadband network (NBN) deal between the government and China’s ZTE Corp.

“I’m sorry your honor, but my legal counsel has advised me from answering questions on the matter,” Mendoza told members of the House appropriations committee during a hearing Thursday night.

Mendoza said officials of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) could not speak about the contract, citing pending petitions filed against them before the Supreme Court and the Office of the Ombudsman.

He said they were “bound by the sub judice rule for pending cases and in this way, might not discuss any matter related to the merits of the case lest be declared by the SC in contempt of court.”

Jose “Joey” de Venecia III has asked the Supreme Court to stop the implementation of the controversial project while Iloilo Vice Governor Rolex Suplico has filed a petition before the Ombudsman.

Acting on De Venecia’s plea, the high tribunal on Tuesday ordered a temporary halt to the broadband project, envisioned to establish a seamless connectivity of landline, cellular and Internet services among all government offices nationwide.

But opposition Congressman Rufus Rodriguez, who raised the NBN issue during the hearing, said Mendoza simply needed to answer questions whether a contract was actually signed between the ZTE Corp. and the government.

“This is not any investigation,” he said, adding that it was not the merit of the case being questioned.

But Mendoza maintained his stated position prompting Rodriguez to suggest he might be constrained to request for the resetting of the DOTC’s budget hearing.

Committee chairman Edcel Lagman reminded Rodriguez , however, that the NBN project has no budgetary implications because it has no appropriation yet as earlier stated by Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya.

Committee vice chair Junie Cua agreed with Lagman.

The NBN contract was reportedly signed by Mendoza and Yu Yong, ZTE vice president, on April 21 in ceremonies witnessed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in China.

SC votes 8-7 to stop NBN deal

By Leila Salaverria - Inquirer


MANILA, Philippines -- By a vote of 8-7, the Supreme Court Tuesday ordered a stop to the implementation of the $329-million contract for the National Broadband Network (NBN) project, which has been tainted with allegations of bribery, overprice and sexual favors.

The seven justices who voted against the temporary restraining order (TRO) were mostly new appointees to the tribunal, said a lawyer who asked not to be named.

Acting on the petitions of Iloilo Vice Gov. Rolex Suplico and Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI), the tribunal issued an order temporarily prohibiting government officials from enforcing the deal with China’s ZTE Corp.

AHI, which offered an unsolicited bid for the project, and Suplico also sought to compel government officials to give them a copy of the contract and other related documents for scrutiny.

“Now, therefore, effective immediately and continuing until further orders from this Court, you, respondents ... and any and all persons acting on their behalf are hereby enjoined from ‘pursuing, entering into indebtedness, disbursing funds, and implementing the ZTE-DOTC Broadband Deal and Project’ as prayed for,” the high court said in an en banc resolution.

Congressional leaders have called for the scrapping of the controversial NBN contract, the subject of an investigation by committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The NBN project is intended to connect government offices nationwide through landline, cellular and Internet services. It would be funded through a loan from China.

Supreme Court spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez said the respondents to the two petitions were given 15 days upon notice to file their comments.

The respondents include the National Economic and Development Authority and its former chief Romulo Neri; the Department of Transportation and Communications and Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Assistant Secretary Lorenzo Formoso III; the Commission on Information and Communications Technology and Chair Ramon Sales; ZTE Corp.; Arescom Inc.; the National Telecommunications Commission; bids and awards for information and communications technology committee, and the technical working group for ICT.

The high court, in a resolution released Tuesday, also took note of the entry of appearance of the Angara Abello Concepcion Regala and Cruz law office as ZTE Corp. counsel and granted its request to be given copies of pleadings, appearances and motions in relation to the case.

The $329-million contract was signed by Mendoza and ZTE vice president Yu Yong on April 21 in Boao, China, in ceremonies witnessed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Hours later the Philippine copy of the contract was stolen in a hotel in China. It has since been reconstituted.

The NBN deal has been in the news over the past two weeks because of allegations of bribery and overpricing. Nueva Ecija Rep. Carlos Padilla accused Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. of brokering the deal and of receiving sexual favors from ZTE.

AHI cofounder Jose “Joey” de Venecia III also said Abalos offered him $10 million in exchange for backing off from the deal.

Abalos has denied the allegations, saying De Venecia’s statements were part of an attempt to mislead the public about De Venecia’s role in the NBN project.

ZTE has also denied bribing government executives to bag the contract.

Seen by only select few

Earlier, two economics professors at the University of the Philippines said the NBN deal was not necessary because of existing broadband networks operated by the private sector.

In their petition filed the other day, AHI and its president Nathaniel Sauz said the government was forcing the deal on the people despite the numerous questions about it, and despite the contract being seen by only a select few government officials.

“Very plainly, these parties, herein respondents included, are railroading the NBN-ZTE transaction, ramming it down every Filipino’s throat.

“The government is proceeding with this project with reckless abandon, impervious to the very valid concerns, criticisms, and misgivings already expressed before various fora during the past several months. Obviously, the parties interested in this transaction want the deal sealed, so to speak, even before anybody can raise a decisive howl.”

‘Rigged election process’

The petitioners also said that if the deal continued, Filipinos would be in debt for something that was not been studied well and to which they had not agreed.

Suplico said the high court should nullify the NBN contract with ZTE because it was entered into through “rigged selection proceedings,” and violated the procurement law and the build-operate-transfer law that require public bidding, and the Telecoms Policy Act that requires the government to privatize telecommunications facilities.

“The NBN project, under the contract in question, should be annulled and enjoined for preferring public indebtedness over self-reliant and self-liquidating private sector initiatives,” he said.

How they voted

A source said those who voted to issue the TRO were Chief Justice Reynato Puno, Associate Justices Leonardo Quisumbing, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, Antonio Carpio, Ma. Alicia Austria-Martinez, Conchita Carpio-Morales and Adolf Azcuna.

The seven justices who voted against the TRO were Renato Corona, Dante Tinga, Minita Chico-Nazario, Cancio Garcia, Presbitero Velasco, Antonio Nachura and Ruben Reyes.

DOTC ready to defend $329-M NBN project in any court

By Riza T. Olchondra - Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines -- The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) said it was ready to defend the national broadband network (NBN) project in any court.

“We welcome the filing of any charges as we believe that the NBN matter should be resolved in a proper forum, which is the courts, and not through PR (press releases) and other grandstanding venues,” Transportation Secretary Leandro R. Mendoza said in a statement.

Mendoza made the statement following reports that Nueva Viscaya Rep. Carlos Padilla filed charges against DOTC and Chinese officials. Padilla cited a case filed before the Supreme Court questioning the project

As for the case in the high court, Mendoza said, “We are now working with the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to finalize our comments on the case.”

The $329-million NBN project won by ZTE Corp. of China is one of the target beneficiaries of the $1.8-billion loan agreement between the Philippines and China.

Signed and sealed

The Philippine government and the Chinese Export-Import Bank signed the deal without fanfare on Saturday on the sidelines of the ASEAN Economic Ministers meeting at the Shangri-La Hotel in Makati.

The NBN project is envisioned to establish seamless connectivity of landline, cellular, and Internet services among all national government agencies or offices.

DOTC reckons the government will save P2.51 billion yearly from the NBN project set to be undertaken by ZTE, aside from enjoying a lower three-percent interest on the loan compared with a nine-percent interest on government bonds used to fund communications spending.

On Tuesday, Padilla lodged a complaint in the Office of the Ombudsman against Mendoza, Assistant Secretaries Lorenzo Formoso and Elmer Soneja, four officials of the Chinese state-run company ZTE Corp., and several others.

‘Grossly disadvantageous’

Padilla said in his charge that transportation officials violated the anti-graft law and the Government Procurement Reform Act when they entered into a “grossly disadvantageous” broadband deal between the Philippines and ZTE.

“The NBN matter is now considered sub-judice, which means that the case is now in the hands of the court,” Mendoza said.

Broadband deal challenged at SC

Iloilo Vice-Governor Rolex Suplico on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to nullify the controversial broadband contract between the government and Chinese company ZTE Corp.

In a 129-page petition the former congressman said the $329-million contract to build a National Broadband Network violates the Procurement Act, the Build-Operate-Transfer Law and the Telecommunications Policy Act which calls for the privatization of all telecommunications projects.

Suplico said the contract was also one of the reasons why Romulo Neri was pulled out as Socio-Economic Planning Secretary to temporarily head the Commission on Higher Education.

He said he had anticipated that the Department of Justice would consider the contract as an executive agreement that does not need a public bidding.

In an interview, Suplico said Neri was demoted to CHED to keep him out of the decision-making process on the escalating controversy hounding the NBN project.

“Neri was taken out of the loop on the NBN Project because he now shares a different view on its viability and regularity. He was demoted for giving the right advice to the President,” he said.

Neri had recommended to President Arroyo that the telecommunication project be implemented by the private sector at no cost to the government. Based on transcripts of their meeting on the Cyber Corridor Initiative in November last year, Mrs. Arroyo agreed with Neri.

But apparently, Neri was forced to endorse the proposal that the project be carried out by ZTE through an alleged government-to-government agreement, and not through a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) scheme as had been agreed upon, Suplico said.

“Neri had no choice but to toe the line. There’s nothing much he could do but to endorse it, as he was apparently kept in the dark until the final stages of the ZTE agreement had been drawn-up. But among colleagues and his close circle of friends, he has maintained that this deal was a mistake and that it should be undertaken by the private sector by way of BOT,” Suplico said.

Under the deal, ZTE will set up the network using funds the Philippine government would loan from the Chinese government and turn over its operation to the government after it is completed. The deal also contained a “sovereign guarantee” clause which requires the government to refund ZTE in case of financial losses.

Neri had preferred that instead of loaning money from the Chinese government just to establish a national Internet backbone, the government should have allowed the private sector to build the network.
--Maricel V. Cruz - Manila Bulletin

DoJ says $330-M broadband deal legal

By Tetch Torres - INQUIRER.net

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has affirmed the legality of the $330-million broadband contract the Philippines signed with a Chinese company.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez told the Department of Transportation and Communication (DoTC) that the proposed National Broadband Network (NBN) project could be considered an executive agreement, “provided that the loan agreement between the Philippine government and China Exim Bank is subsequently concluded."

He said executive agreements do not fall under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act requiring that "all procurement activities must be made through public bidding."

Lawmakers have questioned why the government settled for negotiating with a chosen company, ZTE Corp., rather than auctioning off the project as mandated by law.

They accuse the government of failing to consider the offers of other telecommunication firms amid reports that two other firms have offered to undertake the project at significantly lower costs -- Amsterdam Holdings with $242 million and Arescom USA with $135 million.

The DoTC is pushing the project as a means to cut government spending in telecommunications, which is estimated to be worth about P4 billion every year. The agency estimates that government can save around P3.6 billion in communications expense if the NBN pushes through.

Questions hound national broadband network project

By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines -- Controversy continues to hound the multi-billion-peso National Broadband Network (NBN) project of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DoTC).

The DoTC is pushing the network as a means to cut government spending in telecommunications, which is estimated to be worth about P4 billion every year. The agency estimates that government can save around P3.6 billion in communications expense if this project pushes through.

Discussions on the NBN project started back in 2005, said DoTC Assistant Secretary Lorenzo Formoso who also holds a concurrent position as commissioner of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT).

A policy-making body also directed to "establish and administer comprehensive and integrated programs in information and communications technology," the CICT started brainstorming on the NBN for government.

This ambitious project aims create an intranet or an "internal" network for government institutions, as mandated under the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000, and other policies that followed.

Under the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000, government is mandated to "install an electronic network" to facilitate transactions between government agencies from the national down to the local level. This government network is seen to reduce government's expenses on information and communications technologies, the law said.

The law also mandates the establishment of a web-based government portal, and a "domestic Internet exchange system" to help communications and electronic transactions between government agencies, and eventually to the public.

The CICT is specifically required to create and implement "an integrated government information and communications infrastructure development program" that would coordinate all existing government programs.

The Department of Science and Technology's Preginet (Philippine Research, Education and Government Information Network) is currently one of biggest government networks established, said Tim Diaz de Rivera, CICT commissioner and in-charge of e-government projects.

NBN project takes shape

In 2005, the CICT was appointed in charge of restructuring two government agencies: the National Computer Center and the Telecommunications Office (Telof), which was placed under the supervision of the CICT.

The CICT set up an information infrastructure group and mandated former Telof head Frank Perez to oversee implementation of the NBN project.

Perez eventually resigned and Formoso took over as head, while holding on to his concurrent position at the CICT.

On July 2006, ZTE Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Department of Trade Industry (DTI) Secretary Peter Favila, Formoso said. Under this MOU, ZTE agreed to bring in investments in the Philippines through various projects including one on telecommunications, said Formoso.

In a separate interview, National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Romulo Neri confirmed this MOU between the trade department and ZTE, but stressed that it was more "exploratory."

By August 2006, the ZTE submitted a proposal to the CICT to help set up an NBN. Formoso said that ZTE proposal indicated that the People's Republic of China will finance the project through a "concessional loan."

The CICT eventually endorsed ZTE's proposal to the NEDA sometime October 2006, Formoso continued.

The staff at the NEDA Infrastructure Development Division, where the project had been assigned for evaluation, confirmed this endorsement from the CICT. But they said the proposal did not indicate if the proposal came from ZTE. The proposal indicated a generic NBN project.

"It could have been from ZTE. NEDA does not evaluate suppliers for projects," Neri stressed. Asked if the DoTC-endorsed project proposed a build-to-operate scheme, the Socio-Economic Planning secretary said it was among the options considered.

On December 2006, Formoso said that a Chinese ambassador announced the Chinese government had agreed to finance the country's NBN project and had chosen ZTE as the major contractor and supplier. On that same month, the Amsterdam Holdings Inc. said that it submitted its own unsolicited proposal to the DoTC that involved a build-to-operate scheme, Marinelle O'Santos, legal counsel for AHI, told INQUIRER.net in a separate interview.

By December 5, 2006, the lawyer revealed that ZTE had also sent a counter-proposal to AHI suggesting that the holdings firm should adopt its NBN proposal, O'Santos said. AHI had sent a request for information to Chinese suppliers Huawei and ZTE as early as September 2006. Huawei quickly responded on September, while ZTE asked for an extension.

In a timeline it prepared, AHI showed that DoTC had set February as the deadline for submission of unsolicited proposals for the NBN project.

Return of Telof

On February 2007, the Palace announced that it was moving Telof back to the DoTC, which originally oversaw its mandate. In an interview, Formoso said the government is planning to transform Telof into a government broadband service provider.

According to the NEDA Infrastructure Development Division's records, the DoTC-CICT reported the result of the evaluation done by the Bids and Awards Committee for Information and Communications Technology (BAC-ICT) commissioned by the DoTC, in response to the February 13 instruction of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

NEDA said that the BAC-ICT recommended the establishment of a 'single broadband network" that would satisfy government's requirements.

On March 23, the DoTC formally endorsed the revised proposal for the project, as it took account the BAC-ICT recommendations, NEDA added. Three days after, the NBN project was presented to the joint NEDA Investment Coordination Committee (NEDA-ICC) Technical Board and the Cabinet Committee, composed of different government agencies.

NEDA said that the NEDA-ICC deferred approval of the project and recommended DoTC to refine the proposal.

"I was there as part of the technical working group created by NEDA," said Formoso who represented the CICT.

On March 29, 2007, the NBN project was approved during the joint NEDA-ICC and NEDA Board meeting with a total project cost of about P16.5 billion.

Around April 2007, NEDA director general Romulo Neri wrote a letter to the Chinese government saying the agency was endorsing the NBN project for financing. Neri confirmed writing the letter.

On the same month, President Arroyo flew to China to witness the signing of the contract between the Philippine government and the Chinese government.

Formoso said the supply contract will only push through after "favorable [legal] opinion" from the Department of Justice is issued, and that government finally agrees to the proposed loan agreement.

Lost contract

Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza and ZTE Corp. Vice President Yu Yong inked the $329.5-million supply contract for a national broadband network, a statement from the Office of Press Secretary's website said.

This was the same contract that was later reported "lost" by the Department of Trade and Industry commercial attaché for China. The National Bureau of Investigation had suspected that the contract had been stolen.

"If you have an executed agreement, it is not yet effective until it fulfills the two conditions set," added Formoso who is also a lawyer.

"The issue of transparency is really a non-issue because the proposal did pass through different agencies through the NEDA-ICC," Formoso said, as he denied reports that accused the DoTC of keeping this project under wraps.

Formoso said that the DoTC had reconstituted the lost contract based on the "control copies that we had." The reconstituted contract was signed by ZTE officials and DoTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza in late May 2007, just after the NBI came out with its report on its own investigation.

A source privy to the NBN project said that any reconstituted contract should pass through the NEDA-ICC again. Neri was not available for further comment.

A staff at the NEDA Infrastructure Development Division, said that the supplier contract does not to pass through the agency until it has been finalized.

Transparency questioned

The DoTC official said proposals from Filipino company Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI) and Arescom were also received.

"The Amsterdam Holdings also presented to the CICT their proposal, which came in later after we received the proposal from ZTE," Formoso said.

Formoso said that the Amsterdam proposal was later given to NEDA "but with a cautionary note that they have not disclosed who their partners were."

The NEDA Infrastructure Development Division, however, could not recall receiving any proposal from AHI, nor did it receive any NBN project proposal that follows the build-operate-transfer scheme. Under a BOT scheme, a private contractor will sets up and finance the project until a period of time when it turns over the entire operations to government.

Neri stressed that NEDA does not evaluate proposals from suppliers.

Formoso said the DoTC eventually found out that AHI only had a capitalization of P625,000, which the legal counsel of AHI had confirmed.

AHI's O'Santos, however, said that the holdings firm had increased its capitalization to P11 million.

"The Amsterdam Holdings was set up to bid for the project…but we didn't want to place all our eggs in one basket," added the lawyer who said that the company had tapped Chinese supplier Huawei to become its technical partner for this project.

Jose De Venecia III, who is chairman of Broadband Philippines, is the principal of the holdings firm, the lawyer said.

Track record

In a Powerpoint presentation on the NBN project shown to a local business community, Formoso noted that AHI failed to show any "technical capability much less a track record on IP-based telecommunications."

The DoTC executive said the AHI proposed a "predominantly mobile network with very limited coverage."

"It does not have financial resources as its paid up capital is a mere P625 thousand pesos and has no firm commitments from equity or debt investors," Formosa's presentation added.

In December 2006, Amsterdam Holdings filed an unsolicited proposal with the government to build the NBN under a Build-Own-Operate scheme. It was to be financed privately.

Formoso said that Arescom, on the other hand, proposed to use an "outdated technology" including satellite that has very limited coverage, he said. "Arescom is a wifi and DSL product manufacturer with no telecom system integration track record," he added.

The NEDA Infrastructure Development Division pointed out that the Arescom project was a Department of Interior and Local Government project that was endorsed to the agency years back. It was formerly called the Comnet 2005 project, where Arescom was the supplier.

DoTC said that a comparative evaluation of the proposals for the NBN project showed that AHI offered to do the project at $240 million, while Arescom proposed $135 million.
The ZTE's proposal cost about $329 million.

The deliverables, however, varied as AHI offered to deploy 85 base stations and 500 cell sites, while government had to buy its own cell phone units and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) terminals, the DoTC presentation said.

Arescom, on the other end, had to deploy 21 base stations and 83 customer premise equipment, along with a satellite central hub station, it added.

Specifications

ZTE's proposal involved deploying 145 repeater stations, 30 IP-based virtual private network nodes, 300 base stations, 25,844 customer premise equipment with VoIP terminals, and the establishment of one Internet data center doubling as the Network Operating Center with back up.

The AHI lawyer, however, disclosed that the original ZTE project proposal, which the company believes to be the same proposal given to the CICT, would cost government $262 million. This was based on the counter-proposal given by the Chinese supplier to AHI in December 22, 2006 after the holdings firm requested for a proposal after it submitted its unsolicited bid to the DoTC.

AHI was later surprised when the DoTC advertisement revealed that the ZTE project cost had increased to $329 million, O'Santos said.

Showing its own side-by-side proposal analysis of the ZTE and its own, O'Santos said that AHI's cost was not too far off from ZTE's proposal. "But ours is zero cost to government," she added.

"All we ask is that the process should be followed. Why didn't the DoTC say that our proposal was not complete? They never gave us the opportunity to complete our proposal," she said.

AHI also defended its decision to offer a mobile solution to government since a Commission on Audit report shows that the bulk of government telecommunications spending is going to cellular and national direct distance calls.

"We're offering to reduce the cellular cost to government," the lawyer said.

Again, AHI's own timeline showed that ZTE had submitted its original proposal of September 6 to DoTC and requests for time for amendments on February 26, 2007.

Deeper probe into broadband deal sought

By Francis Earl A. Cueto, Manila Times Reporter

A MAJOR labor organization on Tuesday sought for a more in-depth investigation in connection with the losing bidders in the $329.5-million broadband contract between the Philippines and a top telecommunications firm in China.

In a statement, the Construction Workers Solidarity (CSW) said the incorporators and owners of all the companies that bid in the project should be made public as part of the probe being conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) over possible sabotage in the loss of the ZTE contract signed by the Philippine government and ZTE officials in the presence of President Arroyo in China.

The CSW said a deeper probe into the incident should be done in view of reports that the son of a high-ranking government official owns one of the losing companies.

ZTE is the second-largest telecommunications firm in China.

The NBI has filed charges of malversation of public property against Philippine Commercial Attaché to China Emmanuel Nino Wee before the Ombudsman over the loss of the ZTE documents, according to CSW.

Crispin Soriano, CSW secretary-general and spokesman, said that identifying the owners of Amsterdam Holdings, Inc. (AHI) and Arescom, two companies that bid for the project, would help the NBI determine motive, if any, to support its suspicion that the project is being sabotaged.

Besides the loss of the documents, Department of Transportation and Communications Assistant Secretary Formoso has accused AHI of spreading “disinformation” about the national broadband project.

The statement also quoted Arnel Dalumpines, chief of the NBI task force, as saying that the ZTE’s competitors in the bidding might be behind loss of the signed documents between China and the Philippines.

When completed, the national broadband project will connect all government offices nationwide down to the barangay level, at a cost much lower than the price of the same services offered in the IT market.

“It might be a demolition job hatched by the competitor against the winning bidder ZTE Corp. They might have connived with Commercial Attaché Ang and Chinese interpreter Allan Liu,” Dalumpines was quoted as saying.

Ang, who worked closely with Liu during President Arroyo’s visit to China, said the ZTE documents were either stolen or were lost in his hotel room in China after they were given to him for safekeeping.

The broadband project aims to speed up communications and coordination among government offices, and is expected to result in billions in savings in taxpayers’ money

The duel over broadband

The Globe versus Smart contest has moved up from the cellular phone business to ROUND 2 OF THE TELCOS WAR

THE telecommunications war—fought by the country’s two largest telcos, Smart and Globe (and their giant mother companies)—has entered the Second Round.

Now they are dueling over the Broadband Internet Access market. Broadband Internet service, both companies believe as do the best minds of the industry, is the telecoms industry’s future source of mega profits.

Smart Communications Inc., a subsidiary of telecoms giant Philippine Long Distance Co. (PLDT), owned by Manuel V. Pangilinan, and Globe Telecom Inc., owned by Jaime Zobel de Ayala and his corporations, are still heavily engaged in making their mobile-phone services continue to rake in billions but they are adjusting their focus and looking at broadband infrastructures, providing broad-band Internet access to their present customers and drawing outsiders into the loop.

Just as in the mobile-phone business, Smart and Globe are competing in luring new customers into the world of Broadband Internet Access and provoking dial-up Internet subscribers they already have to upgrade.

Experts and industry leaders say the growing numbers of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), who mainly know broadband Internet in their locations abroad, as well as Filipinos working here at home in call centers and various other business process outsourcing (BPOs) establishments, are the market for broadband. They—and their families—plus the fact that Internet penetration in this country of more than 85 million is rather low, are the main factors that persuaded Globe and Smart to invest a good part of their capital and their time and talent in Broadband Internet.

Industry sources also see that, with profits from the cellular-phone business starting to taper off, the impulse to go into Broadband Internet has become more urgent.

Napoleon Nazareno, PLDT and Smart president and CEO, said broadband is the future of the telecommunication industry.

He projects that in the next three to five years, Broadband Internet Access will become a major basic service to vast numbers of the country’s population.

Gerardo Ablaza, Globe president and CEO, says his company is excited by the growth opportunities in the broadband sector and will accelerate the roll-out of the Globe network to tap into the huge demand for affordable Internet access.

“I would like Globe to have a significant presence in the broadband market starting in 2007,” Ablaza said, and that is why his company is giving Smart/PLDT a good fight.

Promo sale

To outdo each other and serve the huge Philippine demand for cheaper Internet services, Smart and Globe are offering great promotional discounts.

The promotions are attractive enough to attract even members of the so-called mass market or the hoi polloi. These after all are also loyal users of mobile phones even if they are only “tingi” (or mini-retail size) customers of loads.

One of the early Smart promos is “Smart Bro.”

For one, Smart introduced the “Smart Bro” a revolutionary high-speed broadband Internet service as low as P999 a month with a speed of up to 384 kbps or seven times faster than dial-up.

According to Smart, the service works by installing a Smart Bro antenna at subscriber’s home which is directed to the nearest Smart cell site to give faster connection signal.

The company started its wireless broadband service in June 2005 called Smart WiFi, a wireless broadband connectivity to homes and small businesses without the need of a landline phone.

However, after months of operations, the company started being bombarded with complaints because of its low speed.

Later on, Smart in April 2006, relaunched the service and renamed as Smart Bro.

Ramon Isberto, PLDT and Smart spokesman, said the aggressive promo of the company is designed to persuade users to avail themselves of the new products while addressing the problem of the limited ownership of personal computers (PC) in the country.

The PLDT moved to increase the use of broadband services among small and medium scale businesses but running a promotional campaign that bundled free personal computers along with DSL (digital subscriber line) packages.

This program immediately addressed one of the key obstacles to the massive growth of Internet usage—the high cost of computers.

Also, the PLDT increased Internet usage by providing myDSL services to thousands of Internet cafés all over the country. About half of the 10 million regular Internet users in the country connect to the Web via Internet cafés.

“Our target market is the traditional consumer like individual houses and Internet cafés that are able to serve a large number of consumers,” Isberto. His company is also targeting the corporate and the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) markets.

“Broadband service is now cheaper compared to before,” he added.

Smart-PLDT’s Nazareno also said that the market potential for broadband is expanding rapidly. He said that the PC penetration grew by 58 percent to about 1.4 million year on year or 8 percent of total households in 2006.

Internet users also surged to 9 million from 3.4 million, half of whom access the Internet through Internet cafés.

“The current broadband market in the country more than doubled to about 340,000 subscribers while narrowband Internet usage is increasing in the lower income households,” he added. These narrowband Internet users will eventually become broadband customers, of course.

Globe introduced the same service called Globelines Broadband Budget Bundles, a landline service with unlimited access, with speed of up to 384 kbps for only P995 a month.

Globe Broadband subscribers may also activate their VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) account and use Globelines Broadband VoIP softphone service to call overseas for a special rate of $0.05 or about P2.50 a minute.

Innove also introduced a speed upgrade for its broadband consumers, increasing speeds from 384 kbps to 512 kbps, at no extra charge to customers.

“Our direction for 2007 is really to deliver affordable Internet business to the people particularly the mass market,” Jones Campos, Globe spokesperson said.

One of the company’s strategy, Campos said is to offer an affordable price. Price in relatively poor Philippines always never fail to attract new subscribers.

“The demand for broadband Internet is robust and encouraging. We feel in a matter of time we can be able to serve the demand,” Campos said noting that the company’s target is the population of professionals, students, OFWs and both small and large companies.

Next growth frontier

Since the mobile-phone business has started showing indications of a slowdown, telecommunication companies now more actively seek other opportunities to grow.

The 3G (third generation) technology service offered by telecom companies failed to match the popularity of 2G when introduced in early 2000. Until now the subscriber growth has not been growing despite the companies’ promo and advertising for 3G. This is because even if there are enough customers who afford the more advanced cell phones to use 3G products—like streaming video, video calling, conference calls, TV programs and movies—the content is very prohibitive in the Philippines.

It is also rather expensive for the telecoms giants to invest in making or hiring US and European content to feed 3G customers.

As a result, the earlier hopes to develop great business from 3G technology have not been realized.

In addition, the growth in cellular-phone users has also slowed compared to the surges in growth of the early 2000s. In an earlier interview with Edgardo Cabarrios, chief of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) Common Carriers Authorization Division, The Times learned that the increase of mobile-phone subscribers this year may not be bigger and faster than in 2006.

Data from Smart Communications Inc. and Globe Telecom show that the number of subscribers reached about 40 million last year from 34.78 million in 2005. Smart and sister-firm Pilipino Telephone Corp. have a total of 24.2 million subscribers, while Globe and Touch Mobile subscribers stood at 15.7 million.

“We believe that the Internet access space in general and broadband connectivity in particular, are on the cusp of witnessing a swell demand similar to the exponential growth we saw in the mobile-phone industry a few years back,” Gerardo C. Ablaza, Globe president and chief executive said.

“We intend to be at the forefront of this opportunity, harnessing the capabilities of both wired and wireless broadband technologies to make the Internet available and relevant to all,” he said.

Ablaza said that his company’s broadband business continues to show robust growth, registering a year on year increase in subscribers of 129 percent bringing its cumulative base to 51,426 as of end 2006.

To be continued tomorrow

“This growth is attributable to the increasing affordability of our consumer broadband offerings which are now bundled with free landline service with waived monthly fees in selected franchise areas,” he said.

As of December 2006, Innove increased its total wireline voice subscribers by 5 percent to 383,876 from 362,143 in 2005. This subscriber base is comprised of 63-percent postpaid and 37-percent prepaid with business to residential mix ratio of 22:78.

As of 2006, Globe wireline voice service revenue slightly dropped by 2 percent from P4.4 billion in 2005 to P4.3 billion in 2006.

The company has 5,884 cell sites at year-end and currently serves 98 percent of the population with 94 percent geographic reach.

Ablaza said that for this year, the company allocated a substantial portion of the company’s capital budget for infrastructure investments in 3G (third generation) technology with HSDPA, DSL and other broadband technologies as Globe work toward establishing a pervasive access network.

On the other hand, consistent with PLDT’s intent to develop new businesses beyond cellular, its unit Smart has grown its wireless broadband subscriber base to about 122,000 by end of 2006 under its Smart Bro wireless broadband service.

Smart has close to 2,500 wireless broadband-enabled base stations providing high-speed Internet access to about 500 cities and municipalities all over the Philippines.

The increasing network coverage of Smart Bro continues to provide the PLDT with a complementary service in areas that are currently not covered by PLDT’s fixed line DSL (digital subscriber line) service.

“The strong performance of Smart is underpinned by its commitment to push back barriers to drive both subscriber activations and usage. We are not content to uphold merely our leadership position in the industry. We continue to pursue innovation and to build new businesses around our mainstream voice and text services with the objective of bringing positive and practical changes to people’s lives,” Nazareno said.

Fixed line service revenues decreased by 1 percent to P49.1 billion in 2006 from P40.7 billion in 2005.

The company’s retail DSL continued to grow as broadband subscribers exceeded 133,000 at the end of 2006 with another 300,000 subscribers using PLDT’s Vibe dial up Internet service.

PLDT DSL and Vibe contributed P3.5 billion in revenues for 2006 or 32 percent from P2.7 billion in 2005.

PLDT DSL and Vibe made up 69 percent of the PLDT group’s broadband and Internet revenues for 2006.

Broadband and Internet revenues grew 49 percent to P5.2 billion as PLDT DSL and Smart Bro subscribers more than doubled to 265,000.

“Our ability to stay ahead in the broadband revolution is particularly important for the fixed line business as it enables us to manage the transition from traditional voice services to other revenue streams that can deliver growth for the future,” Nazareno said.

“In 2007, we will work on the integration of our information technology and other convergent platforms. We will maximize the opportunities provided by our large subscriber base and our extensive infrastructure, especially in the rapidly expanding broadband space where we can harness our fixed and wireless capabilities to capitalize on its huge potential,” Nazareno added
By Darwin G. Amojelar - Manila Times Reporter

The Broadband Internet access market just grows and grows

Broadband Internet service in the Philippines continues to be on the priority list of many local telecommunications companies as it will be the emerging focus of competition nowadays, according to the International Data Corp. (IDC) Philippines said.

The IDC projected that the Philippines’ broadband services market will grow at 23-percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in terms of subscribers and at 21 percent in terms of revenues over the next five years.

IDC expects annual revenues to reach $239 million in 2010 from $91 million in 2005.

Total number of broadband subscribers, on the other hand, is seen to grow from 165,000 in 2005 to 475,000 by 2010.

According to IDC, initiatives from technology suppliers have been key to spurring interest in wireless broadband among operators. Furious growth in technology improvements and trials are also key to fast paced development in the wireless broadband space.

“Looking forward, IDC sees the wireless broadband offering to be the next area of competition among the Internet access service providers in the Philippines,” the research firm said.

Furthermore, the Internet access services market remains to be a dynamic telecommunication segment in the Philippines.

Data from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) shows that there were an estimated 1.44 million subscribers in 2005 compared to only 1.2 million in 2004.

“Dial-up continues to be the most popular Internet access service, though broadband access, particularly ADSL [Asy-metric DSL], is on the upswing,” IDC said.

With the rising popularity of Internet broadband in the country, IDC sees the entry of more VoIP service offerings to drive the market’s growth in the Philippines over the next five years.

VoIP is a much less expensive alternative to traditional telephony, which transmits voice via the Internet.

Connectivity

Manuel V. Pangilinan, PLDT president, has said that the onset of broadband products, services, applications and solutions will raise consolidated revenues for PLDT in the coming years by double digits.

“It is our aim to make broad-band access widely available in both our fixed and mobile networks,” Pangilinan said.

“Connectivity was our game. In the future, it will increasingly become: connectivity plus—meaning connectivity plus value-added services. The reason for this is simple: connectivity will eventually become a commodity,” he said, adding that the company’s competitive advantage will increasingly come from value-added services.

Pangilinan further said that PLDT also worked to improve its physical strengths. “We’re now shifting our core network from circuit-switches to packet-switch technologies. Our move to Internet protocol-based systems or next generation networks (NGN) will give us the flexibility to offer a wide array of innovative products and services at lower cost,” he added.

Napoleon Nazareno, president and chief executive officer of both PLDT and Smart, believes that the company’s growth will come from broad-band services.

He also projected that the company will have one million Internet broadband subscribers in three years as it focuses to upgrade its network to NGN.

NGN is the latest technology for voice and multimedia communications based on open architecture design made possible through Internet protocol (IP) technology.

Nazareno said his company will spend about P7.7 billion for NGN expansion or 35 percent of the total capex this year at P22 billion.

For this year, PLDT will install 600,000 to 700,000 NGN lines from an initial rollout of 150,000 in 2005.

The company’s expansion and upgrade of NGN is in line to enhance PLDT’s voice and data service offerings.

“Our ability to stay ahead in the broadband revolution is particularly important for the fixed line business as it enables us to manage the transition from traditional voice services to other revenue streams that can deliver growth for the future,” Nazareno said.

“We expect NGN to have stronger contributions in 2007 and the coming years,” Nazareno said.

He said Internet users surged from 3.4 million in 2005 to nine million last year. About half of the nine million access the Internet through Internet cafes.

Gerardo C. Ablaza Jr., Globe’s president and chief executive said the bulk of the company’s capital expenditure amounting to $350 million will fund its future growth such as broadband and wireless business.

“Capex for 2007 will grow relatively in 2006 as we invest in broadband for future growth,” Ablaza said.

Of the total capex this year, $190 million is for the infrastructure rollout of its broadband business and 3G (third generation) High-Speed Down-link Packet Access and the remaining $160 million will invest to expansion of the company’s 2G business.

“Our ambition is to trigger mass adoption of broadband Internet services in the country,” he said adding that the company will focus on the class D and E market, small entrepreneur and large market
By Darwin G. Amojelar - Manila Times