MANILA –  The Philippines and Japan on Wednesday signed and exchanged notes regarding an Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) System at the University of the Philippines (UP).

Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique A. Manalo signed the notes with Ambassador Endo Kazuya.

In a statement, the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines said they would give a grant worth P168 billion or JPY 444 million for the Open RAN system. This will be under their Government of Japan’s Economic and Social Development Programme.

The project “seeks to strengthen the information and telecommunications infrastructure in the Philippines by providing Open RAN-related equipment to UP,” the statement read.

According to the Embassy of Japan, the initiative sought to create an open, interoperable, secure, reliable and trusted information communications technology ecosystem in the country.

“The project is expected to establish an environment to deploy Open RAN leading to increased competition in the base station market, which will lead to lower costs in the deployment and operation of 5G networks, as well as stimulate innovation, in the Philippines,” the embassy said.

The Open RAN laboratory is designed to create a space for telcos, engineering students and experts to test ways on how the internet can be made faster and more affordable in the Philippines, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) earlier said.

The DICT had hoped that through the Open RAN lab, an initiative established through the help of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), would help develop more shared components for telcos so that the cost of connectivity can be made cheaper in the country known as the social media capital of the world.