The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) in the Philippines has said it plans to work with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and domestic telcos to accelerate the rollout of a 50,000-strong common tower network over a seven-year period. Mobile World Live claims that the DICT proposes signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with interested parties to collaborate on deploying towers in underdeveloped areas, with a view to installing 3,000 new sites in year one, rising to a per-annum rate of 10,000 site deployments in years five, six and seven.
With the government body now keen to finalise the details of a policy it first ushered in last September to avoid duplication of effort, the Philippines’ de facto duopoly Globe Telecom and PLDT’s Smart Communications – which to date have deployed around 16,000 towers across the country – are thought to back the plan.
As previously reported by CommsUpdate, last month the big two and New Major Player (NMP) Mislatel gave a thumbs up to the government’s market-led common and shared passive infrastructure policy, and expressed their willingness to collaborate on the initiative that involves a dozen or so tower companies – which have already signed agreements with the DICT – to deliver a network of common tower assets that should improve telecommunication services while lowering costs.