Biz Buzz: Telco tower trouble
The issue on telco infrastructure sharing through a common tower policy has taken an ugly turn. The policy is being spearheaded by presidential adviser on ICT and economic affairs
Ramon Jacinto, who has been its main champion since first announcing the plan early this year. Jacinto is passionate about the subject, even pouring in his personal money to pay for studies and such.
Unfortunately, there are serious issues with the policy as drafted. The issues have been raised not only by PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom—who really should have no say on the matter, as far as Jacinto is concerned—but even the independent tower providers he wants to lure.
As always, the press bears the brunt of the attacks. Recently, Jacinto used his own media platforms to criticize individual members of the press that he perceives are against his views (even if they simply report on issues raised by other stakeholders). In these attacks, they are branded as “paid hacks” and mouthpieces of vested interests. To be sure, members of the media are used to getting this kind of flak from personalities on the receiving end of unflattering coverage. That doesn’t mean such actions are correct and, indeed, in this case they aren’t.
The main issue raised by the tower providers was the insistence of Jacinto that these be limited to just two providers, at least for the first four years. His reason was that it would protect the viability of their business. The two providers have to build around 25,000 each or a total of 50,000 cell towers. The lack of cell towers, after all, is the reason cited by the telcos for spotty mobile services. We have under 20,000 towers today so an additional 50,000 would bring us up to par with close neighbors.
It all makes sense up to that point. Except, the tower providers themselves, including industry giant American Tower Corp., want the market to be open to more than two players.
Of course, it’s very strange to hear the private sector demand more competition, probably strange even to Jacinto. But then, it’s stranger still that the government wants to limit competition when it is the private sector saying that more competition is better. Have public-private sector dynamics switched overnight?
There’s also that offer submitted by Filipino company ISOC Infrastructures and Malaysia’s OCK Group Berhad to build 25,000 cell towers across the country in seven years. It is apparently still being evaluated by the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
And yes, the legal threat from PLDT and Globe—who have taken issue with the exclusive tower building powers given to the independent providers—is very much alive. They said it violates provisions under their franchise and licenses from the regulator. Jacinto argues that the telcos have lost any “moral ascendancy” to make such demands. We wonder if that’s a valid argument when placed under a legal lens.
The point were are making is that rules like these can succeed when built on consensus. The common tower policy is essential to the DICT’s third telco initiative and can even be beneficial to the incumbent players. Sharing infrastructure means less redundant towers. Money spent here can go toward improving their networks. The tower companies can make good money on leasing fees.
The government must also address permitting bottlenecks that prevail to this day. Too much is at stake and we hope Jacinto, with the DICT, can finalize a set of rules that will survive and pave the way for the final goal of improving services for the public. —MIGUEL R. CAMUS
Fuel importation mystery Ramon Ang
has a counter proposal to the Department of Energy’s recurring idea of importing “cheap and dirty” diesel from Russia as a means of alleviating the plight of the public transportation sector amid the high prices of petroleum.
Ang—who heads the country’s biggest petroleum refiner and distributor, Petron Corp. —says that instead of importing cheap diesel from abroad, the government (whether it’s the DOE or Philippine National Oil Co.) can just buy it straight from Petron.
He argues that petroleum imported by Petron, which is owned by Ang’s San Miguel Corp., will be “cheaper and cleaner” than what Russia or any other country can provide to the government.
Petron, he said, produces fuel that is compliant with the latest environmental standards called “Euro 6.” This is leaps and bounds better than the “Euro 4”-quality fuel that the government wants to import in terms of protecting the environment. In fact, the local use of Euro 4 has already been phased out.
Secondly, Ang says he can sell the fuel to the government at better rates because such a deal would be a tax-free transaction. Instead of saving only P5 a liter under the government’s proposal of importing from Russia, buying from Petron at tax-free rates would immediately give the State an advantage of being cheaper by P6 a liter.
Finally, the acquisition cost for the government would be even cheaper when considering the transportation cost it would have to pay for a tanker to bring the petroleum from Russia to the Philippines.
“In contrast, we can supply the government with its fuel needs right from our refinery in Bataan,” Ang said, adding that the new Petron refinery has enough production capacity to meet the government’s needs.
“We even export petroleum abroad from our refinery,” he said.
Besides, the government has no ability to effectively and efficiently distribute any fuel it decides to import—Ang pointed out with a knowing wink—unlike Petron, which has the largest distribution network in the country.
Ah! He may have touched on the crux of the matter. Indeed, who will be involved in the potentially lucrative business of distributing the petroleum that the government plans to import? Your guess is as good as ours. —DAXIM L. LUCAS
Ecofriendly gold processing
A Taiwanese-owned firm has recently set up shop in the Philippines to offer to mining companies the option to adopt a “more efficient and ecofriendly” way of processing ore.
Philippines Xin Ye Industry Ltd., a Philippine subsidiary of Taiwan Xin Ye Precious Metal Technology Co. Ltd., has opened its first demo facility called Green Power 860 (GP860) in Valenzuela City on Tuesday, which will enable miners to extract more gold in an ore faster, without using chemicals like mercury or cyanide.
“By utilizing GP-860, miners can extract more than 98 percent of the gold in the ore detection tests. This is much more compared to traditional extraction at 55 to 75 percent,” executive vice president
Steven Liao said. “Aside from being ecofriendly, this entire ore-togold process only takes eight hours, has higher efficiency and productivity. As of now, traditional extraction process takes about two to nearly eight days,” he added.
The facility in Valenzuela can process 15 tons of ore and extract 750 grams of gold every day and will take six months to build. Not bad.
We’re told that the GP-860 is a patented technology that is also being distributed to other Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia, but the technology is widely used for other metals.
This is the first time that GP-860 will be used to process gold.
Without revealing any names, Liao said that more than 20 large-scale mining companies had already expressed interest in their facility. During the opening, we spotted a representative from Agata Mining Ventures Inc.—currently owned by the Villars.
The whole GP-860 setup will be sold for $1.2 million, but companies have the option to test the facility for $1,000. Once a company buys the technology, Xin Ye will create a new facility specified for the needs of that company and will also lend a hand in maintaining and operating the equipment. It has a shelf life of about 10 to 20 years.
As early as now, Xin Ye is planning to build two more demo facilities—one in Baguio and one in Camarines Norte. The Taiwanese firm is the first processing plant for gold in the country and will be the third ore processing plant nationwide.
With the administration’s call for sustainable mining, we’re curious which companies will avail themselves of this technology.