Broadband Interconnection

Posted on May 5, 2014

BINDER: Many companies have already thrown in their support to the proposed Broadband Interconnection for National Development and Emergency Response. This might sound like the National Broadband Network (NBN), but it is not. NBN is technically just a Value Added Network (VAN), but it does not have Value Added Services (VAS). As I proposed it, BINDER will be not only be a VAN, it will be the backbone upon which an infinite number of VAS could be attached to it, so that these could function and operate.

VAN-VAS ARCHITECTURE: As it was supposed to be (but it did not happen), the government was supposed to build the VANs, and that would have enabled the private sector to attach their own VAS, without spending too much on their own infrastructure. This would have lowered the cost of services, because the private sector would not have too much investment to recover. This is similar to what happened in the case of the network of roads and highways that were built by the government. With these in place, the private sector was able to provide the land transportation services that are now running on these networks.

PRIVATE TOLL WAYS: We pay our taxes and in doing that, we expect the government to build infrastructure like roads and highways. As it happened however, the government was not able to build the superhighways as it was supposed to do, and that is why private companies had to build and operate the private toll ways, and that is why we have to pay money as we pass through. In a way, this is like double taxation, but that is what is happening, because what was supposed to happen did not happen.

INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAYS: Since the government was not able to build the national broadband networks as it was supposed to do, the bigger companies decided to build their own information superhighways. As it was supposed to be, these private information superhighways were supposed to operate only as VANs, because the original intention was to give the smaller companies the opportunity to provide the VAS components. As it happened, the bigger companies monopolized the business by running their own VAS components in their own VANs, thus leaving out the smaller companies.

INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS (ISPs): As it originally happened, the smaller companies were buying bandwidth from the VANs of the bigger companies, so that they could provide services to the general public as the ISPs as we knew them before. As it eventually happened however, the bigger companies started providing internet services on their own, thus breaking the ethical rule that the producers of goods and services should not compete with their own wholesalers and retailers. As it happened, the ISPs went out of business, leading to the monopoly of the VAN-VAS businesses by the bigger companies.

PATCHWORK CAN WORK: Since the bigger companies have already built their own VANs (they all have their own separate networks), it is now possible to build a nationwide (as in national, if you get the drift) broadband based interconnection, by simply patching (as in interconnecting them) together, to the extent that they would allow it. For many years now, I always find myself in the company of government planners who would always want to build a “brand new” national broadband network, instead of a patchwork. They would be in the right place if they were working for a superpower, but there is really nothing wrong if a developing country would choose instead to patch together what is already there.

FOUR MAJOR TRENDS IN COMPUTERIZATION: The four major trends in computerization are (1) cloud computing, (2) big data, (3) server virtualization and (4) storage scalability. As it used to be, private companies and government agencies had to invest a lot of money in building their own data centers, thus incurring too much costs in servers, storage and facilities management. As it is now however, they have the option of getting (acquiring) these services from “the cloud” (meaning from remote offsite locations). As it used to be, it was very difficult to manage and mine huge data assets in an economical and efficient manner. As it is now however, there are newer technologies to manage and mine the “big data” robustly, no matter how big and diverse it is. As it used to be, hundreds of servers were needed to run big data centers. As it is now however, servers could already be “virtualized”, thus needing lesser servers and smaller space. As it used to be, servers and storage devices were “married” as one. As it is now however, these are now “divorced” and the storage spaces are now scalable.

THE BETTER SIDE OF BUSINESS: I worked for San Miguel Corporation (SMC) when its corporate motto was still “Profit with Honor”. The motto is long gone, but SMC along with many other companies are now practising “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR for short). As it used to be, corporate philanthropy was a one way street, meaning that corporations gave money to worthy causes without expecting anything back, except perhaps a good image and goodwill. As it is now however, corporations have the option to get back something from their donations, in the form of tax credits that they could deduct from their net taxable incomes. It does not really matter whether corporations would give donations in exchange for something or for nothing, as long as they give to worthy causes.

SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR AND PROJECT MANAGER: Many companies in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector have their own CSR programs in pursuit of their own corporate objectives. Since I know many of the officers from these companies, I volunteered to become the “Systems Integrator” (SI) and “Project Manager” (PM) of a shared network that would be built from a patchwork of donated hardware, software and services, combining whatever surpluses they could donate. This is now the BINDER project.

For feedback, email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639083159262