Oversight body for third telco player needs to resolve handful of issues

The government’s Oversight Committee still needs to resolve a handful of issues and possibly revise the Terms of Reference (TOR) before selecting a new major telecommunications player (NMP), regulators revealed the other night.

The oversight committee, composed of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the Department of Finance (DOF), the Office of the Executive Secretary and the national security adviser, met this on May 28, 2018 and came up with four issues to be worked out.

These include the concern on the Frequency Spectrum (formerly awarded to BayanTel), the establishment of the common tower policy; the commercialization of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines-Transco Dark Fiber and the lowering of interconnection rates.

“Once these major issues have been fully resolved, the draft Terms of Reference (TOR) will be revised, if necessary, and shall at once be published to gather comments and inputs from all stakeholders,” DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo M. Rio Jr. announced in a press statement.

Resolving the key issues ensures the NMP selection process could be implemented and that it will be sustainable “to avoid the repeat of what happened in the past.”

“We will leave no stone unturned in providing better telecommunication services to the Filipino people the soonest time possible,” he stressed.

Representatives from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) were also present during this Monday’s meeting to give their insight.