Huge influx of investments in ICT sector seen

The Philippine is expected to become a recipient of a huge amount of investments in the information and communication (ICT) sector as efforts to improve the country’s telecommunication services and internet connectivity intensify.

Investments in the country’s ICT sector have been surging this year to levels never before seen, and such magnitude is expected to continue in the years to come, according to Information and Communications Technology Undersecretary for operations Eliseo Rio.

“This is the first time in our history that the ICT sector became the top investment contributor in our country,” Rio told The STAR.

Rio said third telecommunications player Dito Telecommunity Corp., a partnership between the group of Davaobased businessman Dennis Uy and stateowned China Telecom, has committed to invest P275 billion for its network rollout until 2024.

“Consider also the massive investments now being poured by Globe and Smart, around P120 billion a year combined, due to the competition with the third telco,” he said.

Aside from the telcos, Rio said common tower providers are also set to pour in about $3.4 billion for the construction of at least 50,000 cell sites nationwide in the next seven years.

He said passive telecommunication infrastructure other than towers like fiber optic cables, cable landing stations, submarine fiber optic cables and outside plants would easily contribute around P100 billion in investment yearly until 2022.

Data from the Board of Investments (BOI) showed that investments in the ICT