The Office of Management and Budget created a high-speed telecommunications network that connects all state facilities and jurisdictions in 79 municipalities. The objective is to have all government facilities linked and operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week by the end of summer 2000. A team of OMB staffers managed by the Chair of the Governor’s Information Systems Committee, CPA Jorge Aponte, implemented this state of the art multi-service network with the goal to improve service delivery to all citizens.

A dream turned into reality

The statewide network idea came from a 1994 budget network dream that has already grown up and enhanced into the metro-government 131 headquarters network, and is totally evolving into an Island wide multi-service telecommunications network in all localities (3,000+ locations) by the end of the summer 2000. About 1,700 of the 3,000+ points-of-contact sites are for Education Department, and students are about 80% of the expected number of users, 1/2 millions average weekly users by the year 2000. This new and expanded network concept will provide voice, data, and electronic image or video transfers within Puerto Rico for all government services available in electronic format.

The Government of Puerto Rico developed the old budget network dream of 1994 into an advanced multi service telecommunications network designed to provide Quality of Service, for the benefit of our people. This new state of the art network, known as PR Star Net, was developed under very clear and fundamental values that includes providing fast and secure access to services, move the information instead of people, technology sensitive to the environment and natural resources, reduce government operational costs and increase productivity and competitiveness.

In 1993 when Governor Rosselló took charge of the Island, there was no technology policy or strategy to support public access to information. In 1995 Governor Rosselló created the Governor’s Information Systems Committee (GISC), Chair by OMB Director CPA Jorge Aponte, to steer direction to our technological efforts and establish a strategy that will promote the fast integration of Puerto Rico as a world leader in applied and innovative technologies. The GISC not only adopted technology policies but also established 20 Guidelines to help all agencies stay within the adopted policies and to let the world know what are the government standards in terms of technology.

PR Star Net provides an enhanced scenario of competitiveness. Today 131 government agencies are connected through www.prstar.net, 108 rely on interagency electronic mail and there are over 50 public websites that can be accessed through this address. In June 1996 and June 1999, the amount of technology projects started reached 75 and 168, respectively. In this way, we see how the Internet and telecommunications systems are eliminating the barriers between government branches and jurisdictions.

Telecom services for state-government offices will also be delivered over the public telecommunications network, which, in turn, will push the high-tech infrastructure to all corners of the Island. State government does not have to sacrifice service benefits or price to gain this added benefit. On the contrary, considerable savings will be achieved once the adjustment is made in the network to incorporate this added feature.

Eliminating Internet Access Barriers (Digital Divide)

"It’s one of the network most important objectives to make sure our most disadvantaged communities aren’t cut off from the digital technologies," said Aponte. The truth is that PR Star.Net is making possible for all Puerto Ricans to have Internet access. With a network point of presence in every municipality, the telecommunications infrastructure will reach all corners of the Island.

PR Star.Net will also provide free Internet access to all public housing projects throughout the Island. In an effort to eliminate social and economic barriers, the Government of Puerto Rico is offering Internet access and e-government services to areas that typically do not have access to technology.

According to Aponte, advanced wireless technology would be used to extend PRStar.Net to all public housing projects in Puerto Rico. Aponte explained that "thanks to the Government's incursion in wireless telecommunications, today we can offer public housing communities a window of world information, expanding the opportunity to those fellow Puerto Ricans to improve their educational opportunities and levels of employment, as well as eliminate the social and economic walls to access information and obtain new opportunities as we transition to the Knowledge Society".

This is an extraordinary opportunity for the Government to maximize the use of our resources and to provide more and better services to our citizens. We believe in equal access to the information and services as a right for all citizens. All Puerto Ricans are benefiting of one of the world’s most technological advanced information highway.

Bringing Together Isolated Communities

Puerto Rico liked many other states, recognized that high speed internet access is going to be a key competitive factor for all communities, and the regions that don’t do something to bring in that access are going to be left behind in the new economy. Population density is the most important factor for a telecommunications company to serve and invest in a community and when your population is dispersed, then you have to look for other alternatives.

Vieques, Culebra and Castañer are three isolated communities in Puerto Rico that will also benefit from PR Star.net. Vieques and Culebra are two municipalities unattached from the rest of the Island and Castañer is a community located on the center-west part of the mountains, in between 5 different municipalities making it a very difficult trip for the residents to receive government services. These communities have always been seen as affected or limited in the services that they receive because of their physical and geographic location. The Internet will be the door to the world for the residents of these communities, which they can access through electronic libraries and virtual offices.

Communities in the process of development and of moderate economic resources are able to rely on Internet access through PR Star.Net to make electronic transactions and have communication with the rest of the world in a global environment where barriers of any social class do not exist. PR Star.Net is designed to reduce the so-called "digital divide" and increment access opportunities in Puerto Rico remote communities. The community of Castañer is one of the most dramatic examples because for PR Star.Net purposes, it is considered as an additional municipality, but without the physical structures and the cost that is traditionally associated with the operation of a municipality.

Linking all Government Branches

The network covers the provision of voice, data, video, and Internet service for all three branches of state government. The executive, legislative and judicial branches of state government as well as the municipalities or local governments have access to PR Star. Net. In the past, multiple companies were under separate contracts to supply some of those services limitedly.

In addition to regular state government offices, city halls, the legislature, public schools, public housing projects, courts, correctional facilities, and public libraries, will be able to receive telecommunications services off the PR Star.Net free of charge. All costs have been centralized at the OMB level in order to facilitate business processes and services. This advantage should provide enormous cost savings compared to their existing charges. PR Star.Net is a toll-free super highway, that just requires compliance with our values on use, ethics, privacy, security & public purpose uses.

State of the Art Technology

The development of PR Star.Net is based upon the latest available technologies in equipment, protocols and software. The PR Star Network was designed since the early stages with ATM technology (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) that provides the capability of transmitting voice, video, and data with Quality of Service. PRStar.Net transmits information either through cable or high-speed wireless systems with a minimum speed or bandwidth equivalent to one T1 up to OC-3.

The six backbone points of presence are connected together via OC-3 or faster circuits and each one of the 79 municipalities are connected to the backbone via a DS-3 link. Although this is a hybrid network, most of the points of presence in the municipalities across the Island are linked using certified outdoor bridging/routing units capable of transferring data up to 11 Mbps over links that are up to 20 miles apart. The most important advantage of these units is its unprecedented high-speed data throughput. This networking solutions can be deployed rapidly and are available to isolated communities, city halls, correctional facilities, public housing projects, and government regional offices Island-wide.

This is one of the largest private broadband wireless networks ever installed. The state-of-the-art wireless network infrastructure installed in Puerto Rico will bring the island many benefits including financial savings, increased production, a cleaner environment, improved education for their children and labor force, and increased public service and security.

The network infrastructure supports all forms of communications including email, video, and multimedia. All this is accomplish using as a standard the protocol TCP/IP that is the one used worldwide via the Internet. PR Star Net serves as the backbone for all related data storage, information retrieval and query processing needs.

At a cost much lower than originally estimated

It’s not often you can get more value at less cost, but, in reality that’s the solid return we are receiving from this new telecommunications network. Puerto Rico is getting the best technology at the best possible price. We estimated savings of at least $100 millions compared with the cost proposals submitted by the local companies bidding for the project’s island-wide rollout.

When OMB issued the bid to expand the network across the Island, we received cost proposals ranging from $60 to $713 millions. None of them provided a comprehensive solution to the needs stated in the request for proposal. Some of them wanted to take care of the easy part of the job, others included only partial solutions, and they also proposed to complete the job in 3-5 years; a period of time longer than what we though was appropriate.

We have done the work the hard way. Each one of the major suppliers involved in this project had to provide technical training to a group of government workers selected by the OMB to work in the network installation process. Through this training program the workers gained a comprehensive understanding of the technology and how to properly install and operate the networks for maximum efficiency. “At OMB, we believe that our employees must be equipped with the necessary tools to install and maintain our network,” said Aponte.

Instead of relying in the costly work of external or independent contractors, we have redeployed in house staff, trained and certified others to prepare the human resources in charge of building this network. More than 3,200 credit hours of training have been provided to this staff in technical areas such as local area networks, wide area networks, wireless technology, cabling, site survey, and wireless systems installation. This strategy has a twofold benefit, reduces project staff costs and at the same time readies the government civil service staff that will eventually take care of the network operations.

It was not an easy task to follow this path. We had to break many paradigms in order to self manage this project because not too many people has taken upon themselves the responsibility of caring out and completing a project of this magnitude. The PR Star.Net team learned many lessons related to the importance of teamwork, setting work plans, goals and objectives, contingency planning, project management, follow-up, dealing with old fashion procurement procedures, negotiating with suppliers, documenting the project, and reporting results. Most of all, the PR Star.Net team discovered thru this experience that extra hard work, enthusiasm and the presence of a leader with a clear and focus path, are the most important ingredients to complete the project.

The cost avoidance factor resulting from this management strategy is critical to free up money that can help us support the growing use of electronic commerce by state agencies. E-commerce is the best strategy to provide better public service while holding down government costs.

This network is a fundamental element in the Government of Puerto Rico e-commerce strategy. Jorge Aponte said, "If we are going to make Puerto Rico a global leader in E-commerce, we need to provide the right infrastructure. But that can’t happen if our infrastructure isn’t ready, or if it doesn’t tie into all communities”. This initiative addresses that need by stimulating advances in the public communications network that are needed for e-business to continue flourishing in Puerto Rico.

Governor Pedro Rosselló already has taken other aggressive steps to encourage the growth of e-commerce in Puerto Rico. In August 7, 1998, Puerto Rico enacted the Digital Signature Act that gives electronic signatures the same legal standing as a handwritten signature on paper. Additionally, since 1995, the Governor’s Information Systems Committee (GISC) is helping state agencies develop more e-commerce programs to deliver public services online. The total investment approved by the GISC amounts to $262.2 million for a total of 168 technologies related projects. And since 1997, CPA Jorge Aponte unveiled the Global Contracts agreements for the acquisition of software - a partnership with various software leaders to provide all government agencies with the tools they need to transform and develop their services into a dynamic, 21st century resource that will help to enhance Government employee’s skills and services. The cost-avoidance savings associated with this new way of purchasing services are estimated in approximately $ 119.1 millions and they are a consequence of our revised approach to take advantage of the negotiating power of the government to obtain better prices. Instead of formalizing over a hundred separate contracts for each agency, we’ve consolidated those contracts to leverage our buying power and gain a strategic advantage. This isn’t just a technology success story – it’s a procurement success story, too.

Carmen M. Rosado, CGFM
Associate Director, Public Affairs
Office of Management & Budget
(787) 725-9420 ext.2601 - www.ogp.prstar.net