In my article, “The Digital Storage
Revolution”, which was published last week, I wrote about my personal
experience in witnessing the exponential growth of digital storage.
Answering a
question from my barber, I told him that the IT company that I used to transact
business re electronic products and/ or technologies was First Convergent
Communications Worldwide, Inc. (FCC Worldwide). The latter was incorporated in
the early ‘90s already predicting the convergence of emerging technologies in
Text, Voice/Audio and Video or now known as Multimedia. You can recognize this
by the company’s name.
Together with my friend and classmate,
Francis Rueca who now lives in San Francisco, California, we introduced the
first electronic mailing in the Philippines. We brought the technology owned by
SYSCOM and entered into a contract with then RCPI (Radio Communications of the
Philippine Islands), one of the first telecommunications firms in the
Philippines. Known for delivering telegrams/telegraphs to consumers in
the Philippines, our digital technology substantially reduced the cost of
delivery and several times increased the speed of delivery as well.
Francis and I received a certain percentage of RCPI’s revenue from the
digitized communications business.
On the digital
voice communications (telephone), we also brought the Qualcomm CDMA technology
early in the game. Qualcomm was just a new and growing enterprise then, nowhere
near what it is today – a multibillion-dollar company. We offered it to PLDT
(Philippine Long Distance Telephone) and its cellular company in the 1990’s
when Verizon and Sprint were just negotiating to utilize it. Since PLDT was
still a virtual monopoly at the time, it rejected the new technology at the
expense of the consumers who had to absorb high telephone charges and of
potential customers who had to wait several years just to become a subscriber.
I also remember bringing the TDMA
technology of International Mobile. I also offered it to PLDT’s cellular
company but, as expected, they rejected it. The communications firms of Japan,
South Korea and China adapted the TDMA and/ or WDMA technology.
Can you imagine
if either of these technologies was utilized in the Philippines earlier?
Almost in the same period, my company also
brought the latest technology in the Cable TV industry by way of bringing the
new hardware, software, and systems in the delivery of content (TV programs)
owned by General Instrument/JERROLD to homes in the Philippines.
The pioneer of
the cable industry in the Philippines and owner of the Country Cable, the first
cable TV operator in the country Senator Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. recognized the
technology’s importance and immediately utilized, distributed, and promoted it.
The biggest cable company, SKY Cable and many other provincial cable operators
followed suit and the rest is history.
While the eBook Reader technology, which I
discussed in last week’s column only merged text, sound/audio/music, and systems/organizer
technologies. The indispensable but limiting element was storage.
In all of the
technologies discussed above, the more limited the storage capacity, the more
limited your content would be – be they documents, music, audio and applications.
I will be writing more on the digital
storage revolution in subsequent columns as I review my notes on the exhibitors
and presentations in the Storage Visions Conference.
In this week’s
column, I thought that it should be all about “bringing home the bacon” in
answer to my barber’s queries.
Home, of course, is the Philippines.
Bacon, in this case, is the digital technologies.
Also in the
‘90s I represented a company that manufactured and supplied the U.S. military
with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The UAVs were used during the first
Persian Gulf War. I offered a whole system to the Philippine Military.
The manufacturer even agreed to transfer
the technology to the Philippines. Its president and owner offered to work with
me in getting the necessary approvals from the U.S. Government (Commerce and
State). It stood a good chance because of the U.S.-RP Military Bases Agreement
and Defense Treaty at the time.
I remember
bringing the Philippine military attaché to the company premises for a
demonstration. Representatives of the Israeli military were also there checking
out the latest technology.
My Philippine partner and I even lobbied
the Philippine Congress to allocate a certain amount for the project. An amount
equivalent to my quote was actually budgeted. Under the self-reliance program
of the military, we even agreed to eventually assemble a Philippine-made UAV
working with the Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT).
What happened?
Being familiar with the Anti-Corrupt Practices Act of the United States and the
Anti-Graft Laws of the Philippines, I decided and correspondingly advised my
client, not to proceed.
The UAV actually did have non-military
uses. In fact, accompanied by Gerry Zorilla, an Advertising and PR
Executive and a cousin of my wife, arranged and joined me in a meeting with
then GMA 7 President Meynardo Jimenez to use the technology for broadcasting. It
would have been dubbed, “Eye in the Sky”. The TV station was not ready.
It could have
also been used in surveillance and in package deliveries. In fact, we were in
serious discussions through Tony Zorilla with the foundation of then former
Senator Saturnina Rasul precisely for use of the system for monitoring and
surveillance of the boundaries and shorelines of selected provinces in
Mindanao. The death of Tony Zorilla and the loss of Rasul’s Senatorial bid
prevented us from pursuing it further.
“Bring Home The
Bacon”. Filipinos who leave the country always think of doing so. Those who live
in foreign lands, they bring it home as “Balikbayans”
(Returning visitors) or send it in “Balikbayan Boxes”. They are always
thinking of bringing or giving something back to their country.
I am no exception. In my case, I like bringing home the latest technology. In my return, I always make sure that I bring back Pinoy Jokes. J
I am no exception. In my case, I like bringing home the latest technology. In my return, I always make sure that I bring back Pinoy Jokes. J
