PLDT mobile arm Smart Communications has reportedly picked Aboitiz InfraCapital and partner Frontier Tower Associates Philippines (FTAP) to drive nationwide connectivity through the construction of a ‘common’ tower network. Under the plan, Smart, Aboitiz InfraCapital and FTAP will work together to negotiate the lease of new sites, towers and passive telecoms infrastructure and facilities for Smart’s installation of telecommunications facilities and equipment nationwide – but particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao regions. The three parties inked a memorandum of understanding on 19 August 2019. The PLDT unit’s 2G, 3G and 4G networks currently blanket over 90% of cities and municipalities in the Philippines; Smart served some 67.548 million mobile customers at end-June 2019.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) in the Philippines is actively promoting its common tower sharing initiative that seeks ‘to free telecommunications companies from costly capital expenditures in building communication towers’.