Gov’t gets unsolicited proposal for common telco towers

MANILA, Philippines — The government has received its second unsolicited proposal for common telecommunication towers, this time an $800-million offer from an international infrastructure services and information technology conglomerate.

ISON ECP Tower Singapore Pte. Ltd. has submitted to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) an unsolicited proposal to construct 10,000 to 15,000 towers over five to seven years with investments of $700 million to $800 million.

The proposal was submitted last Sept. 11 and is still under review as the DICT has yet to finalize rules on choosing the common tower companies, including how to deal with unsolicited proposals.

“With a large population of mobile users in the country and a relatively developed wireless infrastructure, we view Philippines as a

tremendous growth opportunity for ISON ECP Tower in line with our philosophy of promoting tower infrastructure sharing in Asia and Africa. Further, with our proven track record in passive infrastructure management from all other countries we operate in, we expect to bring large investment in the Philippines to support our long-term objective of generating long-term value for our stockholders,” ISON ECP Tower said.

ISOC Infrastructures Inc., a company chaired by Megawide Construction Corp. co-founder Michael Cosiquien, was the first to submit last July an unsolicited proposal to the DICT to build telecommunication towers to be shared among the country’s telco operators.

Under its proposal, ISOC Infra intends to invest P100 billion over a seven year period to construct 25,000 towers nationwide that can be shared by PLDT, Globe, and an upcoming third telco player.

The proposal also remains under review by the DICT.

ISON ECP Tower is part of the ISON Group, an infrastructure services and IT conglomerate with presence in more than 25 countries.

The company said it would send today a letter to Information and Communications Technology Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio reiterating its interest in participating as one of the two proponents of an independent common tower company.

In its letter, ISON ECP Tower said it supports the guidelines issued by the Office of the President through Presidential Adviser for Economic Affairs and Information Technology Communications Ramon Jacinto and agrees with two particular components namely, independent ownership (no ownership for mobile operators) and two main proponents in the first four years.

“We believe that a maximum of two independent tower companies for a period of four years as mentioned by Mr. Ramon Jacinto in the press consultation, would promote competition and provide a wide range of cost-effective options to the telecom operators as confirmed by Mr. Vivek Gupta, chairman of ISON ECP Tower Singapore,” the firm said.

Under the draft version of the proposed memorandum circular on common telecommunications infrastructure, a maximum of two independent tower companies will be registered by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in the first four years of the implementation of the common tower policy, after which the NTC may register new tower firms if necessary, especially in rural areas.

Deployment of all telecommunications towers shall be performed only by the NTC-registered tower companies, except when it is unable to do so despite the request from the telco operators.

Development and construction of more common towers are expected to greatly improve mobile telecommunication services, internet reliability and efficiency, and provide these at a reasonable cost to consumers.

The DICT said common towers is a worldwide trend and are most prevalent in China and other countries like Australia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.