Infra firm eyeing to become common tower provider

ISOC Infrastructures Inc. will be allocating PHP100 billion for the construction of the towers wherein PHP 20 billion will be invested for the first three years.

“We are here to support and provide solution to the telco program of the government -- we are providing a common tower infrastructure for the government,” ISOC Michael Cosiquien, chairman of ISOC Infra, said in a press briefing during its presentation of their unsolicited proposal Wednesday afternoon.

“We are proposing to provide solutions in upgrading telco services through the government initiative and programs,” he added.

The company tapped OCK Vietnam Pte Ltd. as technical partner for the common tower project.

For his part, DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. said a common tower policy will help lower costs of services that telcos provide to consumers and will ensure that the costs of constructing towers will not be passed on to them.

“A common tower provider can provide better prices for the telcos that will bring down the price for the consumers and that is what the President wants. Right now, the services of Globe and Smart are high because they are not sharing towers. They are passing on to the consumers the cost of putting up the towers. Had they shared their towers, then the costs in recovering that tower will make subscription costs lower. This is what we are trying to do now: bring down the costs,” according to Rio.

The DICT official further said that the department will provide assistance in securing permits for the common tower provider.

Earlier this month, the DICT has released its guidelines on the common tower policy, which may be leased to existing and new telco players to build their communication facilities.

The department hopes to accredit up to two independent tower companies by the first quarter of next year, followed by a six-month building period.

The Philippines has one of the lowest tower densities in the world with less than 20,000 towers serving 100 million people. Approximately 50,000 more towers should be built to serve the current voice and data traffic.

The lack of cell towers has been identified as one of the barriers that results in slow and costly Internet services in the country.