A challenger to PLDT- Globe duopoly may finally be named before end-2018
IT HAS been almost a year since President Rodrigo Duterte called for a third telco, or telephone company, to challenge the PLDT-Globe duopoly. And following a protracted deter be named before the year ends.
Duterte, latching on to consumer complaints over PLDT, or Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., and Globe’s poor
He said he would bring in a Chinese player to partner with a local telco. The new player, he had declared, should be operational by the
Prospective players
Malacañang last year said Duterte was favoring China Telecom, but the list of prospective foreign players has since expanded to include Korea Telecom, LG, KDDI Corp., AT&T, and Telenor.
Local firms looking to spearhead the challenge, meanwhile, include Davao-based Tier1, Philippine Telegraph and Telephone
- band Group International, Inc., Converge ICT Solutions, and Easycall Communications Philippines.
Oversight committee
- cable given the procurement and other rules, delays in the issuance of TOR, or terms and reference, by Department of Information and Communications Technology also held up the search. This prompted Duterte in April to order the creation of an oversight committee that brought in the other agencies such as Department of Finance (DoF).
This, unfortunately, led to differences in the selection approach, resulting in the release of two TORs: one detailing DICT’s highest committed level of services (HCLoS) method, and another containing DoF’s auction-based approach.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd, in criticizing the points-based HCLos system, argued that auctioning off spectrum would allow government to earn from assets worth billions of peso.
DICT acting head Eliseo Rio, Jr., however, expressed concerns that bidders with deep pockets could play around the system. He
eventually have to be borne by consumers.
“The upfront money we’re asking them has nothing to do with infrastructure rollout,” he explained. “They don’t have subscribers yet.
Final rules
A public hearing saw prospective bidders overwhelmingly favoring DICT and led to pledges relating to national population coverage, minimum average broadband speed, and capital/operational expenditures over
Prospective players should have a minimum paid-in capital of P10 billion, at least 10 years of experience in delivering telecommunications services on a nationwide scale, no relationship to the dominant telcos, and no outstanding liabilities with regulators.
consortium holding a congressional franchise to install, operate, and maintain telecommunications networks and services.
Population coverage— given the greatest weight of 40 (with spending at 35 and broadband speed at 25)—should be at least 10 percent per year, or 50 percent by the end
- tive third telco should cover 50 percent during
Capital and operational spending, meanwhile, should not be lower than P40 billion - ceeding years, or a total of P140 billion. The maximum level was set at P140 billion for the
The minimum average broadband speed
with one point to be awarded per year for every two Mbps extra up to maximum minimum average speed of 55 Mbps. submission of offers.
On track
Rio has said that DICT was on track to meeting Duterte’s deadline that Filipino consumers should know who the third telco would be “by Christmas.” He told TheManilaTimes, “[By] the year 2020, the third telco will be fully operational and all programs of the government,” which support this vision will be in place.
Under “Vision 2020,” he said, government was eyeing the implementation and establishment of a common towers policy, open access, mobile number portability, and fast and affordable internet. It was also considering the
assets of National Grid Corp. of the Philippines and National Transmission Corp., along with the rollout of National Broadband Plan and free Wi-Fi nationwide.
Rio added, “[A]ll of which will make the third telco player competitive, will make our ICT (information and communications technology) services in the Philippines very much improved.”