By Alexander F. Villafania, INQ7.net
NETWORK equipment company Nortel is expecting an eventual surge in demand for new consolidated Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications technologies in the Philippines as more enterprises streamline their communications infrastructure.
One of the new technologies Nortel is expected to grow in the Philippines is Session-Initiated Protocol (SIP), which consolidates several types of communication protocols through a combination of software and hardware.
For instance, a mobile phone call can be pushed to a landline such as an office or home number. A call can also be initiated during a conference call while running a chat or download manager in the background. Likewise, an SIP service enables video calls to be initiated while running several other communications applications simultaneously.
Nortel Asia Pacific product and solutions marketing manager Mitch Radomir said many firms in the Philippines have already deployed IP-based communications systems allowing for voice-over-IP communications. While this cuts down on the cost of phone calls, he said SIP services would further reduce expenses on infrastructure upgrade while maintaining existing equipment.
SIP hardware and software can just be placed on top of an available infrastructure, which may have different communications protocols. Once an SIP solution is in place, all communications can be consolidated into one seamless network, Radomir said.
Nortel recently introduced its Multimedia Communications Server 5100, an SIP-ready solution targeted at enterprise IP users. It has audio-video conferencing, file exchange, messenger, and call screening features, among others. The MCS 5100 can execute communications protocols on bandwidth of only 128 kilobits per second.
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Justices of 5 nations to take part in video conference, first in RP judiciarys history, says Conference Chairman Panganiban
By REY G. PANALIGAN, MB
Unprecedented in the history of the Philippine judiciary, chief justices and senior magistrates in five countries will discuss in a live video conference the judicial reforms instituted by their judiciaries on education, compensation, and selection of judges.
The historical event will be held Tuesday, next week, the second day of the three-day International Conference and Showcase on Judicial Reforms (ICSJR) at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel in Makati City.
Justice Artemio V. Panganiban, conference chairman and moderator in the video conference, said the event will be participated in by Filipino trial court judges in three locations Baguio City in Luzon, Cebu City in the Visayas, and Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao.
The live video conference will be from two points Washington DC, in the United States and Makati City in the Philippines.
Aside from discussing reforms on education, compensation, and selection of judges, the video conference will also explore reform initiatives that address issues on judicial independence, integrity, transparency, accountability, efficiency, and access to justice, Panganiban said.
Participating in the video conference in Washington, DC, are Justices Sandra Day OConnor, Stephen Brayer, and Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court and World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz.
On the Makati City panel are Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide Jr., Supreme Court of the Philippines; Justice William Ian Corneil Binnie, Supreme Court of Canada; Deputy Chief Justice Paulus Effendi Lotulong, Supreme Court of Indonesia; and Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Expected to participate in Baguio City, Cebu City, and Cagayan de Oro City are judges of the regional trial courts, metropolitan trial courts, municipal circuit trial courts, municipal courts, municipal trial courts in cities, and Sharia courts.
A total of 17 chief justices and heads of delegation from 45 countries, including the Philippines, will speak and lecture in the three-day ICSJR. Twelve other members of foreign judiciaries and agencies in the justice system are also set to deliver lectures in the conference that officially starts on Monday next week.
So far, 119 participants have confirmed attendance in what is said to be the biggest gathering of Chief Justices in Asia.
The conference also seeks to identify areas of collaboration among Asia-Pacific justices, judges, and legal institutions to promote judicial reform and institutionalize a knowledge-sharing and management mechanism through the organization of an Asia-Pacific Judicial Reform Network.
Among the Philippine Judiciarys reform projects to be showcased are the strengthening of the Philippine Judicial Academy, the Program Management Office, and the Public Information Office, and the implementation of the Code of Judicial Conduct and the Code of Conduct for Court Personnel.
Also to be showcased are reform projects of other countries which the Philippines has adopted, such as the mobile courts, computerization of court processes and record-keeping, and improvements of Halls of Justice.
Sponsored by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, the conference is organized by the Supreme Court of the Philippines through its Program Management Office (PMO). The countries which have so far confirmed their participation are Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Cambodia, China, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Economic Court of the Common Wealth of Independent States;
Egypt, Guam, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Thailand, Ukraine, United States, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, and Venezuela.
Managing the conference is the Supreme Court Committee on Knowledge Sharing and International Conference and Showcase on Judicial Reforms chaired by Justice Panganiban. The committee members are Justices Angelina Sandoval Gutierrez, Antonio T. Carpio, Adolfo S. Azcuna, and PHILJA Chancellor Ameurfina A. Melencio Herrera, and Assistant Court Administrator and PIO chief Atty. Ismael G. Khan Jr. PMO Program Director Evelyn Toledo Dumdum is the conference secretary
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Senate bill seeks cheap, widespread use of VoIP
By Veronica Uy INQ7.net
THE CHEAP and widespread use of voice over Internet protocol (VOIP), especially among overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and Philippine-based business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, is being sought by Senator Manuel Roxas II.
In Senate Bill 2166 filed on Monday, the co-chairman of the oversight committee on e-commerce said current laws, specifically Republic Act 7925 otherwise known as the Public Telecommunications Policy Act, must be amended so that consumers are provided wider choices and their welfare promoted.
He said old laws have been rendered ineffective or obsolete by changing business models, consumer demands and technological innovation.
Roxas said the bill would require any person or entity seeking to provide VOIP for public use and for compensation to first register as such with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
The bill supports an earlier decision by the NTC to regulate VOIP.
Heated debates over the use of VOIP as a telecommunications service or a value-added service were followed by an NTC memorandum, dated March 29 this year, setting the regulatory status of VOIP and concluding that VOIP is a value-added service (VAS).
The NTC memo defined VAS as enhanced services beyond those ordinarily provided by local exchange and inter-exchange operators and overseas carriers through circuit switched networks.
In earlier Senate hearings, the NTC said OFWs, exporters, and call centers are among the heavy users of VoIP because of its low communications cost. The commission further said this necessitated the regulation of VOIP and development of new applications and services to enhance Philippine competitiveness in the global ICT market.
For his part, however, Roxas pointed out that interpretation of the law is not the key issue. Market forces and technology have already overtaken certain provisions of the law, he said.
Until Congress comes up with its own clear definition, this is the policy position of the NTC that VOIP is not a traditional voice service, that it is not subject to capture by the telcos or the telecommunication companies. But on the other hand, it is now the market that is already ahead of us, rendering some provisions of our laws obsolete.
There is an immediate need to modernize some provisions of our existing laws to catch up with the trend. But Congress must see to it that our OFWs, call center operators, and exporters or the consumers in general will continue to benefit and will not be taken advantage [of] by unscrupulous businessmen, Roxas said.
His bill defines VOIP as all types of voice communication using Internet Protocol technology instead of the traditional circuit switched technology.
Roxas said VOIP enables users from different parts of the world to engage in voice conversations, even from long distances, without having to pass through part or all of the telecommunications facilities which charge much higher fees for the use of their networks.
Using VOIP lowers communication cost. It enables our OFWs to communicate with their loved ones as often as they want, our BPOs and exporters to transact businesses at lower cost, making them even more competitive, he said.
The Senate committee on public services is set to invite telecommunication firms Smart, Globe and Digitel to the next hearing.
According to NTC, parallel moves to push for VOIP regulation have also been filed at the House of Representatives.
