Bridgewater in talks with telecom firms

By Alma Anonas-Carpio

Canada-based information and communications technology (ICT) firm Bridgewater Systems is making its presence felt in the Philippine market as it is now in talks with local telecommunications firms to provide a framework that will improve broadband penetration and access in the country.

Bridgewater Systems Asia-Pacific managing director David Brooks said last week that despite its relatively low level of broadband penetration, the Philippines is considered a “lead market [by Bridgewater] in Southeast Asia,” and that his firm is also looking at “learning from the Philippines when it comes to creative marketing techniques for products and services.”

Bridgewater Systems specializes in providing frameworks and technologies for broadband, Wi-Fi wireless technology and WiMax (or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access telecommunications technology) providers who serve the Internet and telecommunications connectivity needs of a given market. Their clientele includes “over 100 service providers in 30 countries in North America, Europe and Asia,” Brooks said.

He lauded the “creative marketing” techniques used in the Philippines, saying there are “more and more nuances and provisioning schemes we can learn from and build on in the Philippines in terms of performance and scalability.”

While he clarified that Bridgewater is not a provider of WiMax services that, essentially, operate like Wi-Fi or wireless Internet connectivity on a larger “hotspot” footprint capable of blanketing an entire city in wireless access to the Internet, “we provide the best-of-breed products for WiMax rollout.”

Brooks also noted an increased demand for broadband in the Philippines, saying “big international carriers like [the United States’] Nortel smell large potential growth in the Philippines.” The other tell-tale sign that broadband demand is rising is that the cost of broadband access is dropping, he added.

With this increased demand for broadband access, however, local carriers are faced with the classic problem of having enough “product” or bandwidth in supply to meet their consumers’ demand. “This is where we come in to help carriers manage the distribution of bandwith among users and to formulate business rules around which subscribers entering the network at any given time are given access according to their needs and budgets without hard-coding the network.”

“The Philippines is a very exciting market for us,” Brooks added. “Filipinos are extremely technology-savvy and the country is really ripe at this point for the services we offer and we are really looking forward to doing business here.”

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Bridgewater in talks with telecom firms

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