Shared telco towers

We are counting on shared wireless communications towers to help boost internet connectivity all over the country. 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.

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 Nov. 7.

We 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.

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.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has received an unsolicited proposal from a private firm that plans to construct wireless towers for shared use.

The proposal was submitted by ISOS Infrastructures Inc., a firm chaired by Michael Cosiquien, one of the founders of Philippine Stock Exchange-listed Megawide Construction Corp.

Even the government might end up spending less to install the national broadband network once the shared towers are in place.--Rep.