Japan allocates ₱168M to support Open RAN testing center in PH
MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The Japanese government earmarked ¥444 million, or roughly ₱168 million, for an Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) system laboratory at UP Diliman.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and Japanese Ambassador Endo Kazuya formalized the grant aid in the DFA Pasay office on Wednesday.
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Also, the Philippine News Agency says it covers the provision of Open RAN-related equipment to the laboratory.
The University of the Philippines Diliman and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) set up the facility through a 2024 Memorandum of Understanding.
The lab will facilitate the deployment of an Open RAN system.
It will allow telecommunications companies like Globe and Smart to integrate with hardware and software from any information and communication technology vendor (ICT) vendor.
As a result, the system can lower the cost of 5G network deployment and promote innovation in the Philippines.
DFA Secretary Manalo said, “[This is] again another significant deployment in our growing cooperation with Japan.”
“I think it will be of great assistance to Philippine agencies, especially for the UP.”
“The important thing is now, we are also branching out to different areas of cooperation with Japan in addition to the other long-standing fields of cooperation.”
UP Vice President for Digital Transformation Peter Sy, who witnessed the signing, lauded the Open RAN system laboratory.
“Japan and the US already have telcos running on Open RAN but not yet mainstreamed, so very new pa siya (so it’s still very new).”
“Ang pinaka-upside nito, dahil open ang standards, marami nang vendors ang puwedeng sumali.”
(The upside of it is that because the standards are open, more vendors can participate.)
The Japanese Embassy said this Open RAN project shows Tokyo’s support in enabling an “open, interoperable, secure, reliable and trusted” ICT ecosystem in the Philippines.
