Plan to bring in new telco players backed

Ihave backed President Rodrigo Duterte’s plan to improve telecommunications services by bringing in new players and driving direct competition.

The lack of effective competition in the sector has led to higher prices, poor quality or levels of service, and considerably less innovation–all at the expense of consumers.

We simply cannot allow Filipinos to be forever at the mercy of only two dominant service providers.

The President’s resolve to introduce new players emerged anew when Rodolfo Salalima suddenly resigned as Secretary of the Department of

Information and Communications Technology (DICT) after less than 15 months in office.

In an interview with PTV4, the President said he had asked Salalima to vacate his post amid complaints that due to favoritism, he sat on pro- posals to break the country’s telecommunications duopoly.

Salamina was one-time chief legal counsel and senior advisor of Globe Telecom Inc., which, together with rival PLDT Inc., have ruled the telecommunications sector for years.

The DICT is overseeing the creation of a national broadband network that aims to provide an Internet connection speed of at least 10 Mbps to all households by 2020 at a significantly lower price than today’s average P1,299 per month.

I am counting on Salalima’s replacement to find the legal and regulatory frameworks that would open up the telecommunications sector.

We should have multiple players persistently racing to beat each other in delivering superior Internet services at reduced prices.--