The United States Trade and Development Agency awarded a technical assistance grant to Now Telecom Company Inc. for the rollout of 5G network in the Philippines.
USTDA approved NOWTel’s and Nokia Bell Labs’s request to fund technical assistance for the development of wireless telephony network in the Philippines using 5G technology.
The TA includes the design of a national 5G wireless network, design and planning of a nationwide broadband network and the design and implementation of a pilot 5G network in Metro Manila.
USTDA’s funding will support NowTel’s development and implementation of a mobile and fixed wireless network utilizing 5G technology.
The TA will be undertaken by Bell Labs Consulting represented by Nokia of America Corp. as the prime contractor, a company registered in the US that is engaged in research and scientific development in the telecommunications sector.
NowTel said the 5G pilot launch would use network and radio equipment, core network, and software developed and supplied by Nokia Americas and its subsidiaries.
The objective of the TA and 5G pilot launch is to support NowTel’s plan to launch a 5G stand-alone network in the Philippines that will contribute to the overall improvement of broadband connectivity in the country and increase competition in the Filipino market.
“The TA and pilot launch of a 5G network in the Philippines through Now Telecom will include a development plan and execution of a pilot 5G stand-alone network and the design of a completely “clean” and “secured” stand-alone 5G network,” said NowTel president Rene Rosales.
“The 5G network plan will include among other technical components, the deployment strategy and definition of infrastructure requirements for the network transmission backbone for both domestic and international connectivity that will be responsive to existing and projected countrywide traffic volume and routes/destinations in the Philippines,” he said.
The National Telecommunications Commission renewed in 2020 the provisional authority of the company’s mobile telephony service which allows the company to install, operate and maintain a nationwide mobile telecommunications system, not only specific to 3G mobile communications
technology but also other technologies such as 4G and 5G.
