The canceled National Broadband Network project with China’s ZTE is now being revived as the GBN or Government Broadband Network. NBN, GBN — same creature, just different skin.
Inquirer.net reports that local telcos PLDT and Globe are on a wait-and-see status regarding the broadband project. My previous hunch that this project is not totally dead is spot on.
The original issue of whether or not the NBN was a sound project is now clear. It was all about who was getting the project and which hands were getting the cut from it.
Whether PLDT or Globe lands the project, guess which company will be providing the equipments to be deployed? Yup, most probably it’s going to ZTE as well (unless Huawei jumps in and bids lower). Remember, a lot of the existing products in the local mobile 3G and the DSL market are coming from China’s ZTE.
Besides, the local telcos are already providing the basic services and infrastructure to the Philippine government. The GBN will just become an exclusive nationwide contract to consolidate all offices from Aparri to Jolo under one telco. Would be interesting to know how much they’d bid for the whole project though.
Use to be priced 15 billion pesos, now it’s 15 gazillion pesos.
Just wondering. How many ads will 15B pesos can buy? =)
Twitter: mparazgmail.com
says:
At least the name is more relevant. And, PLDT and Globe currently only serve places where it’s profitable – if one of them builds the GBN, then this will force them to build out everywhere.
Globe Innove is really bad based on experience when it comes to Makati City… but overall, Globe is the best choice. I keep hearing that Globe Innove and Globe DSL is faster than PLDT DSL in the provinces… Cavite, Mindanao, etc.
And they should stop their quarrels already.. it is hampering the growth of the country and the government offices. They really need to wired up together… SSS Makati, their PC is almost permanently offline!! I have work, I don’t have the liberty of lining up everyday waiting for their PC to go online.
i heard that Nokia want to grab the nbn project
Usually Government projects costs more than previously decided plans……
I vote for Nokia/Siemens
[...] The Philippine Government also has a similar project called the Cyber Education Project (CEP or CyberEd) although it was more aimed for on-demand or live video feeds to elementary and high school students nationwide. It has a projected budget of Php26.5 billion which is a hefty price tag. This is also a separate but overlapping project from the NBN-ZTE deal. [...]
this is a good move by the government….