Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Fifth of Six Parts

MANILA, Philippines -- WilliamYu, a network consultant and lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University Department of Information Systems and Computer Science has found that the National Broadband Network (NBN) contract has no provisions for an upgrade.

Yu said that since the NBN is using wireless technology that is fast-changing, an upgrade provision is very crucial. And since technology usually has a lifespan of five years or even lower especially for evolving technology, it would need an upgrade.

Evaluating the technical specifications, Yu noted that the ZTE contract did not clearly show any provisions that would indicate that upgrades will be provided.

In most instances, upgrades are placed under “managed services.” But a further analysis of the NBN contract annexes showed that the managed services will only be available for one and a half years.

Breaking down the cost in terms of percentage, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) said that 58.9 percent of the cost will go to the purchase of equipment, freight, and insurance.

Among the technology that will be purchased include a transmission backbone, a “regional Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wimax)” system, Internet Protocol backbone equipment, a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system, among others.

Wimax is telecommunications technology that provides broadband Internet connections over long distances. VoIP, on the other hand, is a technology designed to allow voice to be transmitted through an Internet-based network instead of the traditional circuit-switched networks of telephone companies.

The rest or 41.1 percent will go to civil works, system implementation and engineering, site engineering, three years’ worth of services for the project management office, services for the Internet Data Center construction and integration, three years’ worth of link charges, training, and one and a half years’ worth of “managed services,” DoTC said.

Managed services usually involve a third-party group maintaining a system.

DoTC Assistant Secretary Formoso III had said during the Senate investigation that the budget for operation and maintenance of the NBN would come from the annual budget of the Telecommunications Office (Telof), which amounts to roughly P500 million a year.

Yu, however, described the NBN project “ambitious,” considering that private sector companies are now investing billions of dollars to also build their own broadband network.

He also described the NBN a “monolithic” project that government should not be doing. “If the local carriers are giving them a raw deal, then they should revisit the law. Let free market rule,” he added.

Philippine Internet pioneer and former National Computer Center Director General William Torres agreed, as he stressed that technology bids become problematic if there is no transparency.

Considered the “father of the Philippine Internet” because he was the first to have pushed the idea of connecting the country to the Internet in 1992, Torres also went on to co-establish Mosaic Communications, the first Philippine Internet service provider in the country.

During his stint at the National Computer Center (NCC), he instituted the Information Systems Strategic Plan (ISSP) for all government agencies, which was intended to find out the different agencies’ information technology plans. The ISSP was designed to allow the NCC to intervene or “advice” agencies about their information technology plans.

He also helped create the National Information Technology Council, the pre-cursor to the government and private sector group Information Technology and E-commerce Council (ITECC). ITECC was eventually dissolved when the CICT was established by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“There should be a transparent process of procurement, bottom-line. Technology change and the needs of users change because of the changes in technology,” Torres said.

As detailed in the volumes of annexes of the NBN supply contract, the NBN is a huge undertaking since it plans to upgrade the government telecommunications backbone run by the Telof.

A telecommunications backbone is a large data pipe where smaller pipes or the “last mile” connections can link up.

Yu pointed out that one of the weaknesses of large government IT projects involved buying “everything in one go,” as in the case of the NBN. Since the NBN project is not a rolling implementation, the Ateneo technical expert fears possible delay in the implementation of the NBN project that would likely render some equipment useless or obsolete.

Quizzed by Senator Francis Escudero on how the DoTC factored in obsolescence in the NBN project during the Senate inquiry, Formoso III replied, “We didn’t factor in any obsolescence, your Honor, because within the lifetime of the system there would be no expense to upgrade it because…we think the useful life is there.”

(To be concluded)