YPS

One of the criticisms that is being raised against the proposed National Broadband Network (NBN) beside the allegations of attempted (or actual?) pay-offs made to government officials is the lack of clear guidelines that would define the terms of contract for the supplier of the system.

According to a paper by University of the Philippines School of Economics professors Raul Fabella and Emmanuel de Dios, "To begin with, if the government seriously believed the NBN backbone was a vital project, then it ought first to have completed the preliminary work ... identifying the magnitude and urgency of the need, the technology and equipment required to fill it, and a ballpark figure for its cost. Only then could government have defined the terms of reference for an honest-to-goodness competitive bidding for [a build operate transfer scheme.]"

And this problem seems to be attendant in the planned Cyber-Education project of the government. Again, according to Fabella and De Dios, "A component of the original NBN was the so-called
‘e-Education program', which involved providing universal connectivity and content for the nation's public schools. ...Through some inexplicable twist, however, even this project became scaled up to entail a second government-operated backbone, satellite- enabled this time, in addition to the NBN backbone... (underscoring theirs)"

If the planners at the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the Department of Education (DepEd) would have been more careful with undertaking an assessment of the true information and communication technology (ICT) needs in the country, then they should have started with reviewing some of the data that government itself has been producing on the sector. This was the gist of a paper I presented at the recent National Convention on Statistics (NCS) held early October and was written as part of a series of policy monographs that will be published soon by the Foundation for Media Alternatives, a non-government organization that I am also associated with.

The objective of the paper was to measure the so-called ‘digital divide' in the country or the differences in how Filipinos utilize ICTs, more particularly the more popular ones, such as cellular phones and personal computers. Utilizing the most recent household surveys such as the 2003 Family Income and Expenditures Survey (or FIES) and the 2003 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (or FLEMMS) (whose public access files were only recently released this year), the research provided a snapshot of the differences in the ownership (or formal provision of these ICTs at homes, use (or actual utilization of these ICTs for gaining knowledge or information) and impact (or those reporting gaining additional knowledge or use from ICTs.

What were we able to find out from our study? Not surprisingly, phone (both fixed and cellular) and personal computer ownership is concentrated in Metro Manila and the nearby regions. Personal computer ownership is non-existent for the poorest half of all households in the country, while 30 percent of the richest income decile are able to own computers. ICT ownership is highest for those household heads who are single and for those who are female (this should not come as a surprise to those studying poverty and welfare in the Philippines, as female-headed households have generally higher standards of living than male-headed households). A positive relationship also exists between households with higher educational attainment and with higher ownership of ICTs; for example, among postgraduates, 90 percent own phones and 40 percent own computers while among without education, practically no household own computers while around 3 percent only own phones. While most of these results would be expected, as income may be a determining factor in asset ownership, include ICTs, we also found that the probability of computer ownership is higher among households with members ages 8 to 15, or that the presence of older children and young adults increases the likelihood of computer purchase.

At the same time, we found out while that ownership rates are quite low, utilization rates are much higher, reflecting the fact that people, including low and middle income individuals, are able to access ICTs in internet cafes, schools or other areas, outside of their homes. For example, while only 13 percent of households in NCR own computers, regular utilization rates are around 35 percent of individual respondents, according to the FLEMMS; in the CARAGA region, 2 percent of households own computers but 13 percent of individuals are able to use computers on a regular basis. Thus, the correlation between ownership and use is not that high.

On the other hand, the correlation between regular use and impact (or those who report that they gain additional knowledge from using the ICT) rates are much higher; this reflect that as one gains better use of a phone or computer, then a person can be able to get more information that would be useful to him or her. Impact rates are even much higher than regular use rates which shows that even less frequent users may be able to get data from computers that can be valuable in their work or school environments.

During my NCS presentation, I was even able to break down these figures on a province-by-province basis so that participants were able to get a better picture of the ‘digital divide' at a more disaggregated level. My thanks to the staff of the National Statistics Office, led by Administrator Bobby Ericta, who agreed to provide me with the provincial codes for their surveys, just for the NCS.

Another unsurprising fact that we were able to find is that may have an impact in the adoption by government workers and schools of the ICT systems that government is proposing to roll out (i.e., NBN, Cyber-Ed) is that there should be complimentary infrastructure, such as adequately staffed schools, electricity networks and good road systems (for people living in more remote areas to access internet cafes or other access points in the municipal center), sot that people would be able to utilize ICTs on a regular basis. Without government being able to guarantee the existence of a minimum level of infrastructure, then all these contracts would go to waste (like what happened to the ‘Telepono sa Barangay' system, an infamous project where government paid more than 10 billion pesos for village phones that were hardly used?).

Other data that would be relevant to the NBN and Cyber-Ed issues are the following:
 A survey undertaken by a research institute of the Department of Science and Technology in 2002 already showed that 11 percent of all secondary schools are already wired to the internet (with more than 15 percent in the NCR and Western and Central Visayas); coupled with the fact the recently, the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), the government agency responsible for ICT policy and programs, has reported that it has wired 2,000 schools, shows that the Cyber-Ed could just duplicate already existing systems that are available in high schools;
 We also found that CICT has been undertaking surveys of ICT resources in government; the latest data from 2003, which showed that a majority of national government agencies are already connected to the internet and at least half have their own intranet systems, also reveals that the only communication system necessary is to connect existing infrastructure rather than to create a new one.

Most likely, a review like this would go a long way in defining the appropriate level of ICT systems which the government and the public education sectors really need.