A revitalized National Broadband Plan in the works

SHENZHEN, China—President Rodrigo Duterte may have recently approved a new National Broadband Plan but the allegations of corruption and overpricing that led to the cancellation of the same project during the Arroyo administration remain fresh in the memories of Filipinos.

Even major industry players who have expressed interest to work with the government in building digital data infrastructure for the country such as Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world, are the first ones to admit that “national broadband” is a very sensitive terminology in the history of the Philippines for 10 years.

“We know the reason and we know the history,” Wellington Liu Tao, head of Huawei Philippines’ Public Affairs and Communications department, told visiting Filipino journalists here.

The government under then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo intended to establish a national broadband network that would link all government agencies via the internet.

It tried to implement a $329-million broadband deal with Chinese firm ZTE Corp. but canceled it in the wake of allegations of corruption and overpricing.

Arroyo was charged with graft in connection with the deal but the case was dismissed by the Sandiganbayan last year.

According to Liu Tao, the scandal actually caused the delay in the crafting of a new national broadband program for many years.

While this may have been the case, it has positively made telecommunication companies more circumspect when it comes to dealing with the government and to avoid repeating the mistakes of the ZTE-NBN deal.

“We are trying our best to comply with all the laws and regulations in the Philippines because we take the lessons from the history of the country.”

“We try to prevent that to happen so we contact our partners both private and public and we also talked with the Chinese Embassy in Manila.”

“Compliance first and then we keep updated all the time with the policies and try to make all the process, talking to government with transparency, not just in a secret and under the table deal.”

Liu Tao revealed that Huawei began its interactions with the Department of Information and Communications Technology under Secretary Rodolfo Salalima immediately after the Duterte administration approved a new National Broadband Plan (NBP).

He said during their interactions with government officials, company experts shared their knowledge and proposed possible solutions to the telecommunication problems severely affecting internet quality in the country.

“One of the requirements for the new NBP is to give an efficient and affordable solution especially in some rural areas, not only in the city,” said Liu Tao. “We can help the government do that kind of job.”

During a recent visit to the Philippines, he said concerns were raised about the speed of the internet and the service of telecommunication companies. In an effort to give better public service quality and to improve the telecommunications scenario in the country, Huawei Philippines immediately extended assistance to local partners such as PLDT Inc.to upgrade and to improve their services.

At the same time, Liu Tao said they are also working with Secretary Salalima who he said is trying very hard to push the national broadband.

“I know that policy makers and industry players already recognize these big concerns of the public,” he pointed out. “Huawei is trying our best to help our partners together from both public and private sectors to improve their services.”

According to Liu Tao, the issue cannot be addressed only by the government. This is the reason why Huawei has expressed serious interest in extending assistance.

“Huawei has the expertise in the IT industry so we have all these technologies and solutions to provide,” he stressed. “We also have good package experience in other countries, that’s what we can share with the Philippine government, our experience in other countries. As a global company we can share our knowledge.”

Huawei Technologies Spokesperson Joe Kelly further noted that another huge problem is the fact that telecommunications is “capital intensive.”

“It’s not cheap to build in a national level,” said Kelly. “A lot of it comes down to your national economy, things relative to cost and that kind of stuff.”