Duterte rejects deadline extension for 3rd telco player

President Duterte has rejected the request of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to extend the deadline for the entry of a third telecommunications player to May, 2018.

The President still wanted the DICT to pave the way for the operations of the third telco carrier by March as originally scheduled, according to his spokesman Harry Roque.

“There was a request from (DICT) Officer-in-Charge Secretary (Eliseo) Rio that they be given two additional months or until May to award and to ensure that the third telecoms carrier is up and about, this was not approve in yesterday’s Cabinet meeting,” Roque said in a Palace press briefing.

“So we stick it out with the original timeframe of a third telecoms player by March of this year,” he added.

Rio earlier proposed a new timeline for the third telco player after finding the March deadline as too tight for potential participants.

The President, meantime, warned groups against trying to block the entry of the third telco player in the country.

“The President was empathic and issued a warning to the detractors of the entry of the third telecoms player not to test the will of government,” Roque said.

He admitted that the President was infuriated when he found out that government still has to find frequencies to be allotted to the third telco player.

“He was displeased with the fact that frequency given to a shell company Cure (Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprise), which apparently was given for free, would have to be bought back by government in order that the third player could be given these frequencies,” he said.

“The President rejected that proposal that we pay for frequencies that we gave out for free, and he warned everyone involved not to test the resolve of the President in allowing a third telecoms carrier to enter the country,” he added.

The President earlier invited China to become the third telco player to foster competition in the market currently dominated by two large companies, Globe Telecom and PLDT. Beijing has reportedly chosen China Telecom to set up a telecom provider in the Philippines.

Apart from China, South Korea’s LG Corp., Japan’s KDDI Corp., and a Taiwanese firm were reportedly interested to become the third telco player in the country.