Telecom ‘3rd player’ to benefit from Luzon Bypass

THE third entrant to the telecom industry, otherwise known as the ”third player,” stands to benefit from the Luzon Bypass Infrastructure to be built by the government and Facebook, Inc..

DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo M. Rio, Jr. said that the infrastructure can be used by the third player because incumbents PLDT, Inc. and Globe Telecom, Inc. will not be interested in the landing stations.

“It will be available to any organization including small telcos and ISPs, within the capacity of the Luzon Bypass Infrastructure to handle. It is in fact open to Globe and PLDT, though they already have overcapacity in their own respective cable landing stations, so they won’t be interested,” Mr. Rio said in a text message.

Last year, the government and Facebook tied up to build a cable system connecting Luzon to the US and Asia. The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) will construct the Luzon Bypass Corridor, consisting of two landing stations connected by a 250-kilometer cable network corridor. The DICT will build the last-mile connection.

Facebook will provide spectrum with 2 terabits per second capacity.

Mr. Rio has said this is close to the current combined capacity of PLDT, Inc. and Globe Telecom, Inc.

Aside from the cable system, Mr. Rio said mobile number portability, foreign ownership, open access, and spectrum reallocation, will serve as incentives to the third player.

The government is set to select a third player within the year. —