PLDT, Globe seen selling their 16,000 towers

PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. will likely end up selling their wireless communications towers to any of the seven independent private firms putting up new towers for collective use, Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr. said on Sunday, Feb. 10.

“We see both PLDT and Globe eventually assigning their 16,000 towers to any or all of the nonaligned firms providing shared towers, now that the government has permitted at least seven of them to operate,” Campos, a deputy minority leader, said.

“They (PLDT and Globe) will likely consolidate and spin off their tower assets into separate subsidiaries, and then put them up for sale to the independent tower entities,” Campos, who is counting on common towers to quickly boost internet connectivity all over the country, said.

Campos made the statement after the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) authorized Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc. (AIC) to build new towers for shared use.

AIC became the sixth entity authorized by the DICT to construct new common towers after ISOC Infrastructures Inc.; ISON ECP Tower Pte. Ltd.; IHS Holding Ltd.; edotco Group Sdn Bhd; China Energy Equipment Co. Ltd.; and RT Telecom Sdn Bhd.

“The immediate beneficiary of new common towers is the Mislatel consortium—the third telecommunications player that the government has brought in precisely to drive competition in the supply of superior internet services,” Campos said.

“With seven independent private firms racing to put up new towers for collective use, the Mislatel consortium should be able to swiftly scale up internet service coverage, since it can opt to just lease the new structures,” Campos said.

The consortium would spend less to build fewer towers on its own, thus enabling it to spend more for faster network expansion, Campos said. /