Viable playing field eyed for third telco

THE Philippine Competition Competition (PCC) is in talks with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to ensure a viable playing -

“They ( the DICT) have consulted us and we have ongoing discussions with them for the formulation of guidelines for the selection of the third telco player,” PCC Commissioner Johannes Benjamin Bernabe told reporters

Some of the issues that need to be addressed, he said, include making sure that the new telco is “viable and capable of expanding its business operations in the long term.”

“Does it also have sufficient inputs, spectrum? How will you mitigate also the costs of in- frastructure development?,” he added.

Bernabe said they also wanted to make sure that interconnection rates will be reasonable.

to provide interconnection. When you allow that it has to be fair and the charges should reasonable and not exuberant. Those are part of the ongoing work that DICT has been developing,” he said.

“From what I understand from the last public hearing, they have three draft guidelines … we are scheduled to meet in the next couple of weeks to … provide inputs on those,” he added.

Bernabe said the government should also ensure that consumers wanting to switch to new provider would be able to keep their old numbers.