Law makes building cellsites quicker

THE passage of the Ease of Doing Business Law is expected to fasttrack cellsite applications in the country, a top official of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said yesterday.

DICT officer-in-charge Eliseo Rio Jr. said the country needs 50,000 new cell sites, which would cost around $5 billion, to enable telecommunications firms to provide the kind of service the country needs.

At present, the country only has 20,000 towers, much fewer than Vietnam, which has 70,000 sites despite its smaller population.

“We now have the Ease of Doing Business Law, so getting permits for cellular towers will now be granted within seven days,” said Rio.

Telco players have long lobbied for the government to ease the release of cellsite permits.

At least 25 permits, including approval from homeowners, and the go signal from the Department of Health (DOH), should be completed before an actual cellsite is built. This usually takes months to a year before the documentary hurdles are complete.

Early this year, the government proposed a policy of common towers to address the backlog in telecom infrastructure in the country.

Under a common tower policy, Rio said the government will tap a third party to finance and build independent cell towers, which will then be leased to existing and new players.

“This will pave the way for a level playing field for the third telco,” said Rio.

At present, Globe and PLDT build and control their own cell sites.