Earlier today, we witnessed the MOA signing between PLDT and DOST-ASTI that details the local IP Peering of PLDT with PHOpenIX. The same event also officially designated the PHOpenIX as the government’s official IP exchange.
Top brass of PLDT were there to sign along with DOST Sec. Monje and Sen. Bam Aquino. It is worth to note that it was Sen. Aquino who’s been instrumental in getting both parties together and encouraging PLDT to join PHOpenIX.
We asked some detailed questions about this agreement and here are the responses we got from the parties:
- PLDT has donated dark fiber to ASTI which spans from ASTI in Diliman to the ePLDT Vitro Data Center in Pasig. This donation (fiber connection and rack space) is worth Php21 Million (Php21,745,920 to be exact) with a coverage of 2 years. Hopefully, after 2 years, PLDT will continue to provide this for free or the government will try to allocate budget for this as explained by Sen. Aquino.
- While the physical connections are in place, PLDT has yet to implement the proper IP routing in order for the traffic to be re-routed locally. PLDT has promised this will be done in 30 to 45 days from today.
- PLDT is initially allocating 1Gbps for this connection but promised to provide more if ASTI deems more bandwidth is needed.
The underlying policy for this development is AO39 (Administrative Order No. 39) signed in June 12, 2013. AO39 mandates all government agencies to migrate to the Government Web Hosting Service (GWHS) of the DOST-ICTO. DOST has currently migrated around 80% of all government websites to the GWHS.
Section 5 of AO39 states:
Government IP Exchange and Data Peering. The DOST-ICTO shall establish a Government Internet Protocol (IP) Exchange (G/IPX) facility. All government agencies shall ensure that they exchange data traffic with other government agencies and external stakeholders through this G/IPX facility.
This provision requires that any gov’t agency that wants to access or connect to other government websites and e-services must be able to access them thru the G/IPX facility. If an ISP or internet provider is not part of the G/IPX, then that agency will need to subscribe to another ISP that is part of the local IP peering to comply with Section 5. This means PLDT will need to be part of that local IP peering in order to retain their various government contracts.
Likewise, the recent DOST-ICT Project on Free WiFi in Public Places also includes a requirement that bidders are only qualified if they are part of the G/IPX. The Commision on Audit (COA) is tasked to monitor and enforce Section 5 and will disallow budgets for contractors and suppliers if they are not part of G/IPX.
In a way, this is one of the many motivations why PLDT has finally decided to join the group.
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