By Marigold Yao-Endriga
Source: The Philippine STAR. BUSINESS
As the government struggles to address the deteriorating quality of Philippine education, a new player in the Internet industry has come up with a breakthrough solution designed to provide the sector with a so-called “superhighway” to learning.
Mel Velarde, chairman and chief executive officer of One Virtual Internet, said recently that they expect to sign up some 500 schools for broadband Internet service by year–end as well as generate at least P400 million in revenues by 2001.
Broadband is a new technology which allows users to get huge amounts of data from the Internet, which includes multi-media applications, at a very fast rate.
Velarde said that the company intends to focus on schools by providing high-speed and affordable access to the Internet to encourage usage.
Although only about seven percent of local schools are connected to the Internet, he said that they remain as one of the heaviest users of the service.
To be more effective, Velarde said One Virtual has formed a partnership with ECCnet, the Internet service provider (ISP) of the Fund for Assistance to Private Education (FAPE) and Educational Capital Corp. (ECC).
ECCnet acts as the technology arm of One Virtual in servicing schools nationwide.
One Virtual has already installed broadband in about 30 schools with almost 200 more scheduled in the next few months.
Instead of using fiber optic cables, Velarde said that the firm uses a two-way satellite-driven infrastructure.
“Other providers claim that they are using satellite technology but are actually using their satellite dishes to receive signals only. On the return path, they are still using landlines. We are, thus, far the only company that provides the duplex type of satellite-fed service, he explained.
According to Velarde, all traffic to and from Virtual’s Internet backbone go through its Philippine and California hubs, the latter linked vis Panamsat 8 satellite covering the region.
One Virtual, he added, has a relay established 10 points of presence (POPs) all over the country and is aiming to build 200 POPs by yearend and attract about 150,000 subscribers in five years.
Velarde stressed that One Virtual’s service fees are very affordable at about P1,500 a month for unlimited access. The amount goes down to only P400 for educational institutions,
“Our fees are not circuit kilometer based or distance sensitive. Thus, we offer the same bandwidth size anywhere in the Philippines at the same price,” he said.
Velarde said that One Virtual is introducing knowledge 2010 which is a community of learners committed to create significant changes and improve on the development and management of knowledge in the country through education and technology.
The establishment of virtual learning centers (VLCs) throughout the nation via 15-20 centers of excellence, local government units and civic organizations will ensure the fulfillment of the vision and goal of Knowledge 2010, he said.
Moreover, Velarde said that the use of could help solve the problem of lack of good teachers and classrooms and learning materials since schools are brought to students through personal computers.
