In the wake of the successful award of frequency licences to the country’s new third telco DITO Telecommunity (formerly Mislatel) in July this year, the government of the Philippines is now working to develop a new framework to reallocate unutilised spectrum in the hope it can encourage even more telcos to enter the market. GMA News cites the secretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Gregorio Honasan II, as saying that plans are afoot to draft a new Frequency Management Policy. When asked about the possibility of a fourth or even fifth player to join DITO Telecommunity, Honasan told reporters: ‘We will rationalise that also. It will require getting back frequencies that are allocated. It requires a frequency management policy’.
Speaking on the sidelines of the BusinessWorld Industry 4.0 Summit Honasan noted that the proposed Frequency Management Policy would allow DICT to audit the use of frequencies and recover those that are currently underutilised. With the country’s big two – PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom – reportedly promising to support the government’s drive to reallocate unused spectrum, Honasan was unable to put a definite timeframe in place for the new policy framework, noting that the focus now remains on the third telco launch. ‘I cannot say, I cannot be locked into certain timetables because as we speak, variables are coming up,’ he said.