Tongue In, Anew

National Broadband Network: Do we really need it? Now?

I was glued to the Senate hearing on the ZTE-NBN deal, all six and a half hours of it! Never wanting to miss anything, I had to switch on every TV set and radio whenever I moved from one room to another. There were many revelations as expected, never mind if diluted with many safe-side qualifications, as there were indications that even department heads do not understand what they wee doing. That’s what you get for hiring incompetents for political payback. For now, I’ll look at the technical specs.

Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza came with his technocrats whom he had to answer for him several times. The IT expert, or so they say, Mr. Formoso did all the technical explaining job which was, overall, unimpressive and even gave me the impression that he had abused his superiors’ gullibility, ignorance maybe, in terms of the intricacies of IP technology but showed his ugly nakedness when it came to economics, management and law. Why do I suspect it was his capricious design which, of course, was fed him by ZTE engineers, that dominated the blueprint for the NBN?

What’s so special about ZTE’s specs that this Formoso adores so much, he probably keeps it in his altar? WiMax, that’s it.

In the Philippines we are familiar with first-generation protocols CDMA (Do you still remember the first cellphones as thick as your College Algebra book then later slimmed down to MicroTacs, StarTacs and those that looked like "pangkayod ng yelo ng halo-halo" that was easily cloned, at one time, I was billed by now-defunct Mobiline P70,000 for calls I didn't make?), GSM (the breakthrough technology that made Pinoys the world's biggest texters), and GPRS and 3G/HSDPA which today are the prevalent local standards.

The other more popular protocols are 1) DSL which is fast becoming a must-have in many middle class Pinoy homes, 2) Cable Modem Internet, 3) FTTH (Fiber to the Home), 4) BPL (Broadband over Power Line) which Napocor/Transco has installed in its system as Sen. Gordon divulged in the hearing, 5) EvDo (Evolution Data only), 6) WiFi which is comparable but much inferior to WiMax but shorter in range, slower throughput and is a security disaster, 7) 4G which is basically 3G with TV now available to Smart subscribers.

WiMax, (short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a second-generation communications protocol standard described in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standards Book as IEEE 802.16-2004 for the fixed wireless applications and IEEE 802.16e-2005 for mobile wireless. As explained by Formoso, WiMax boasts of point-to-point (P2P - tower-to-tower) line-of-sight (LOS) range of 30 miles @ 72MBps and point-to-multipoint (P2MP - tower-to-enduser) non-line-of-sight (NLOS) range of 6 miles @ 40MBps. It claims to be the best 4-play alternative to the expensive T1/E1 of big business (dedicated lines), cable TV substitute via Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) which is used in practically all call centers and homes with Skype or Vonage capable phones, or as backhaul for WiFi hotspots like those you find in Starbucks, and lastly, the usual cellphone towers. Practically, all these capabilities are available today from the existing providers. Further, they have deployed 3G (for 3rd Generation) and 3G+TV which is very much what 4G really is; WiMax is second-generation protocol!

Formoso preference is flawed in the sense that WiMax design was created for high-density urban areas that require much of the bandwidth available, providing multi-protocol communication possibilities, with portability and mobility as its main selling point. WiMax accomplishes this by planting multiple base stations to carry the load. The 6-mile NLOS range of WiMax is about the size of a small city. This is ideal for road warriors who browse the net on their laptops in their cars, cellphones, or generally, the very mobile upscale yuppies. But if the purpose, as Formoso stresses, is to bring voice/data/image to remote, unwired, 5th and 6th class municipalities, this is not the most economical solution. Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to erect a single base station covering an area 28 square miles if the purpose is to connect a single far-flung barangay hall or public school to the network?

The cellular and legacy telephone infrastructure is already available from the existing private service providers, and as standard industry practice even in third world countries, First and Second-class cities and municipalities are 100% covered, 3rd and 4th class 40-60%, 5th and 6th class 0-30%. But as Formoso himself admitted upon information given by Sen. Chiz Escudero, the existing roadmap under GMA’s E-Governance Project specifies that up to 80% of 4th class cities and municipalities shall be completed by the private sector by 2010. What is the need, therefore, to build a new broadband backbone? I’m sure extending just the existing private-owned networks to include the remaining 20% of the 4th class, and the whole of the 5th and 6th class, would be cheaper a hundredfold! Instead of spending just for a few shower faucets, they want to install a new pipeline! Sen. Roxas, sarcastically, cornered Formoso on the issue when the guy cannot reply when asked how many endpoints were in the “last-mile”. Gordon was impressive unlike his performance during Doble’s cross-examination. He stressed that while the chronic disease that plagues the country’s education and health services leaves much to be desired, we will spend billions on a haphazardly conceived project just to justify a loan.

The final blow was delivered by Blue Ribbon Chair Sen. Alan Cayetano when he asked if DepEd’s Cyber-Ed project, another ZTE undertaking was a duplicate except for the mode of transmission which was by satellite, which had Formoso suddenly dumbfounded. For he knows Cayetano was right but he could not say so cuz it might jeopardize his baby, falling under the same loan package from China Eximbank. Cayetano finished with, “kanina mo pa kami kinukumbinse dito sa NBN na ito, pero hindi mo man lang kinumbinse si Sec. Lapus para ma-justify itong broadband mo.”

I’ll dissect the economic aspect as soon as I see some of the figures submitted. For now, Formoso says ZTE’s P15.5B @ 25-yrs proposal covers 25,000 endpoints that's a cool P25B including interest! A PLDT MyDSL or Globe Broadband Internet connection with one free phone line costs about P1000 without the VOIP charges or only about P9B in 20 yrs. for the same number of endpoints.

The legal aspect is in the Supreme Court and judging by what we have heard from the Senate, it was clearly in violation of existing procurement laws. In one earlier interview, Cayetano said almost everything is now out in the open, and that should Gloria still insist on pursuing the deal, that will be her own undoing.

The question now is, who will get to her first, the law or the Chinese?

posted by Tongue's Wrath @ 9/21/2007 02:00:00 PM