P-Noy's SONA

What is the real state of our nation?

This we hope to hear from President Aquino as he delivers on Monday his third state-of-the-nation address (SONA).

Enough with the fight against graft and corruption. The present dispensation has already delivered the message loud and clear with the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona and the prosecution of former President Arroyo and some of her alleged cohorts.

On second thought, what about the allegations of wrongdoing by the Aquino administration? Take for instance LTO chief Virgie Torres’ alleged involvement in the registration of stolen vehicles and in the Stradcom mess. Has this issue been resolved? And how about the growing incidence of crimes? How does the President intend to explain this?

What we want to hear now are clear and hard facts about poverty, employment, the economy, investments, the status of the private-public partnership (PPP) program. No window-dressing please.

Many businessmen are getting sick and tired of waiting. Take for instance the matter of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX). The Metro Pacific group is still awaiting approval from Malacanang of the contract it entered into with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) to operate and manage the toll road. The contract has already been given the imprimatur by the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC). The supplemental toll operations agreement (STOA) has been approved by the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB). So what is taking Malacanang this long to act on it?

Actually, there are a number of contracts between the government and the private sector that have been signed (but have not been implemented) during the Arroyo administration that are still in limbo on mere suspicion of irregularity. Shouldn’t the presumption be in favor of regularity?  

Super-fast Internet

Around 3.4 billion people will have ready access to super-fast wireless broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps in five years’ time.

And very soon, Filipinos will be joining the rest of the world in enjoying much faster Internet speeds.

The latest Traffic and Market Report by global telecommunications equipment provider Ericsson shows that Long Term Evolution (LTE) – the technology being pioneered locally by wireless leader Smart, has a five percent world population coverage which translates to about 344 million people as of end 2011.

In the next half decade, the report predicts that a 10-fold increase in potential reach is in the horizon as technology continues to gain mainstream acceptance worldwide.

Furthermore the same study reveals that the Asia Pacific (APAC) region which the Philippines is part of, is a prime candidate for an “uptake” citing strong population and improving GDP growth. An estimated 1.5 billion new mobile subscribers is predicted to emerge from the region alone.

According to Smart chief wireless advisor Orlando Vea, super-fast Internet for all is Smart’s renewed battle cry as we enter the age of LTE, adding that with the fastest 4G technology, Smart will continue to enable Filipinos to live more as they enjoy the power of next generation mobile Internet at the palm of their hands.

Fresh from completing its P67.1 billion modernization program, Smart, together with parent company PLDT boasts of having the country’s first and only LTE-ready network. With all network elements in place, Smart can make available LTE and High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) services to areas where connectivity is needed “at the push of a button.”

To date, Smart has presented LTE in several events including festivals such as the Sinulog in Cebu City and the Araw ng Dabaw in Davao City.

Smart also concluded a six-month long beta test of its LTE network composed of over 100 participants from different sectors of society, earlier this year.

Vea said that they are ready to show the world why Smart is Asia’s best mobile operator as they launch this so-called ‘first-world’ technology in a developing nation, as he announced that they will be coming out with their commercial offering very soon.

For comments, e-mail at [email protected]