Alt Global eyes building 2K cell sites across PH in 4 years

ALT GLOBAL Solutions, Inc. is offering to build some 2,000 cell sites across the country within four years as the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) pursues its common tower policy initiative for the local telecommunications industry.

“We are committed to support the common tower project. We intend to partner with major telcos. Currently, we have 2,000 sites available that we can offer,” said Sherwin Hing, Alt Global director, in a press conference held Thursday.

“We want to build the 2,000 towers within four years. It depends on the telcos to identify the location. We have to finalize this with the telcos,” Hing added.

The DICT signed a memorandum of agreement with Alt Global to expedite the process of granting permits for the construction of cell towers.

It plans to issue the permits within two to three months, DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. said.

“With the construction of towers, we can do it in four months or less. Compare that to the more than one year that it takes to put up a tower,” Rio said.

Alt Global Director Enrique Gonzales disclosed that the company has partnered with Now Telecom for the construction of its first cell tower in Bonifacio Global City.

“We want to do 500 towers during the first year. The investment will depend on the kinds of towers that the telcos will specify. We are focusing on aggregating as many locations as possible; the next step is to offer these to the telcos,” Gonzales said.

The DICT identified a total of 2,500 sites as the location for the common towers. It aims to build at least 50,000 towers in seven to 10 years through partnerships among the telcos and the tower providers./pna