Makati solon urges shared wireless towers to boost Internet connectivity

Deputy Minority Leader and Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr. said yesterday that “shared wireless communications towers” would help boost Internet connectivity all over the country.

He made the call as the opening of bids for the would-be third player that will be awarded all the licenses and radio frequency bands needed to compete with PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. – the country’s two dominant Internet service providers, is set on November 7.

He noted the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) already received an unsolicited proposal from ISOS Infrastructures Inc., that plans to construct wireless towers for shared use.

ISOS Infrastructures Inc., is a private firm chaired by Michael Cosiquien, one of the founders of Philippine Stock Exchange-listed Megawide Construction Corp.

ISOS Infra has offered to invest up to R100 billion over the next seven years to build 25,000 towers nationwide that could be leased by all telecommunications firms.

“The immediate beneficiary of new common towers will of course be the third telecommunications player that the government is bringing in precisely to drive competition in the supply of superior Internet services,” he said in a statement.

Campos said even the government might end up spending less to install the national broadband network once the shared towers are in place.

He said they support every initiative that will help quickly improve public access to faster Internet connection speeds at a lower price.

“Assuming we have independent private firms putting up new towers for collective use, the third player should be able to quickly scale up service coverage, since it can opt to just lease the new structures,” he said.

The Makati lawmaker said since it would spend less to build fewer towers on its own, the third player is expected to spend more for faster network expansion.

“As a business model, tower sharing is nothing new. In fact, one of the Fortune 500 firms is American Tower Corp., which owns and operates over 170,000 shared wireless and broadcast communications sites in 13 countries,” Campos said.

He said Internet access should be reclassified as a “basic telecommunications service” so that regulators may compel suppliers to provide rising connection speeds under pain of severe punitive fines.