PCC: Draft common tower policy is anti-competitive

THE Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) on Tuesday said the draft policy on common towers, crafted by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), may be anti-competitive as it allows only two tower companies to operate in the first four years of its implementation.

“Approving the draft Common Tower Policy in its current form… may raise competition concerns and be in direct contravention to the open access regime that the government is advocating for,” the PCC said in its comments on the draft memorandum circular (MC) on common towers.

“The PCC recommends that the relevant agencies review the objective of the Policy to ensure that it squarely addresses issues pertaining to the lack of necessary ICT (information and communications technology) infrastructure to improve telecommunication services in the country, as well as the lack of effective competition in the industry,” it added.

The DICT and NTC in September released the draft MC prepared by Presidential Adviser for Economic Affairs and Information Technology Communications Ramon P. Jacinto. Under the draft, the government will register at most two tower companies to handle the deployment of telecommunications infrastructure that telcos such as PLDT, Inc. and Globe Telecom, Inc. may share.

The policy is aimed at addressing the slow and inefficient rollout of towers, by allowing tower companies to focus solely on building infrastructure and ease the burden on the telcos.

But the PCC said the draft MC needs refining, as the limit it set on the number of TowerCos “would have adverse effects on market competition.”

“The PCC emphasizes that entry or potential entry to the market ensures the existence of competitive pressure, which drives the business to be more efficient, aggressive and innovative for the benefit of consumers,” it said.

It noted that the purpose of the MC was to allow telco operators to share infrastructure, and restricting registered tower companies would not solve the “wasteful duplication of network resources and multiplicity of permits, which have resulted in the slow roll-out of infrastructure and poor quality of services.”

“The PCC calls the relevant agencies to reassess the objective of (the proposed restriction),” it said.

Globe and PLDT have raised concerns over the draft MC, noting that aside from the restriction on tower companies which is anti-competitive, the policy’s intention to keep them from rolling out their own towers contradicts their congressional franchise.

DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo M. Rio, Jr. had recognized this flaw earlier, and said further reviews will be done on the draft MC to acknowledge comments from stakeholders.

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