Globe, Smart, Mislatel back DICT’s common tower policy

• Source: https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1019190
• Friday, March 1, 2019

By Ma. Alaine P. Allanigue (PIA)

QUEZON CITY (PIA) -- Two of the country's incumbent telecommunication companies and an incoming telco operator have expressed support to a market-driven common and shared passive infrastructure policy, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said.

This, following a recent consultation meeting with representatives from Smart, Globe, and Mislatel Consortium, and some interested tower providers, which already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the DICT.

These are the ISOC Infrastructures, Singapore’s ISON ECP Tower, IHS Towers, Edotco Group, RT Telecom of Malaysia, China Energy Engineering Corp., Aboitiz InfraCapital, MGS Construction, American Tower Corp. (ATC), Frontier Tower Associates Management, Phil Tower Consortium (Global Networks Inc. and JTower Inc.), and the J.S. Cruz Construction and Development, Inc.

The tower firms are required to secure a business contract from the telcos before the government could provide assistance through facilitation of permits, right of way, and other government permits for infrastructure.

The common tower policy, targeted to be finalized within the second quarter of 2019, shall guide the government-led initiative of establishing around 50,000 additional towers across the country to improve the quality of communication services in the Philippines.

There are only 16,000 towers in the country in around 8000 location.

In his editorial piece titled, "Solusyon sa serbisyo ng telco maliwanag na" (The solution for the telco service is now clear), Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the number of existing towers built within the past 20 years is less than half of the estimated 50,000 towers the country needs to provide consumers with dependable telco services.

For his part, DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. said our country has the smallest number of towers considering its land area and population compared to other countries in the region.

The DICT also said having common towers will be more cost-efficient for the telcos.

“We are now telling the telcos: We now have tower companies that are willing to put up the infrastructures for you. They will be the ones to invest in the capex; they will be operating and maintaining these towers. All you have to do is rent from them,” Rio said.

“Shared [passive] facilities through this policy would cut back unnecessary expenses from the telco operators and subscribers will benefit from this. The support of telco operators will be pivotal to the smooth implementation of the common tower policy, which is expected to improve telecommunication services while lowering down its cost,” he added.

Nograles said the goal of the Duterte administration has always been to encourage the construction of more telecommunications towers so that telco services are made more reliable and more secure.

The DICT, meanwhile, requested the telephone companies to submit a list of areas and number of cell sites that their respective operations will need as guide for the policy.

The DICT also notified Common Tower Providers (CTPs) and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to submit their comments, proposals and recommendations for the Common Tower Policy until March 5, 2019.

Aside from the upgrade in communication services, DICT estimates that the common tower initiative would also generate about USD 4.4 billion in new investments, and shall provide additional jobs in the country.