Tower companies seek PLDT usage deal

MANILA, Philippines — PLDT Inc. has started receiving offers from tower companies wanting to tap the telco giant as their client in the common telecommunications infrastructure they plan to build across the country.

“A number of these tower companies have approached us. And we said we’re wiling to cooperate in respect of new towers,”  PLDT and Smart chairman and chief executive officer Manuel V. Pangilinan said.

Pangilinan declined to disclose the names of the firms, saying that some of them are public companies

“So the formula is flexible. After they build the towers, and they’re willing to sell to us, we’re willing to consider buying them, or just leasing the towers and tell us whether you are going to lease it to other telcos, so we need to know. So we’re willing to support,” Pangilinan said.

The government is pushing for the development of common towers and mandate infrastructure sharing in the country to greatly improve mobile telecommunication services, internet reliability and efficiency, and provide these at a reasonable cost to consumers.

With a common tower policy in place, the pressure of network rollout and cost management from telco companies are expected to be alleviated as they will be allowed to focus on improving customer service.

It is also seen promoting the availability of a wide range of cost effective and competitive telco networks throughout the country by ensuring optimum utilization of telecom resources.

So far, four international tower providers and one local company have reached out to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) regarding their plans to build common towers in the country.

These companies are ISOC Infrastructures Inc., a company chaired by Megawide Construction Corp. co-founder Michael Cosiquien, ISON ECP Tower Singapore Pte. Ltd., Malaysia-based Edotco Group Sdn Bhd, IHS Towers of Nigeria, and China Energy Equipment Co. Ltd.

American Tower Corp., the world’s largest tower company, is also set to sign a memorandum of understanding with the DICT this week.

Under their respective MOUs with the DICT, these companies must first secure an agreement with at least one telecommunications operator in the country for the use of the common towers they will be building.

Once they secure deals with telco operators, the DICT will then enter into an agreement with the companies in which the government agency will facilitate and extend full assistance to them in complying with legal, regulatory and administrative requirements for their common tower roll out plan.

Smart, in a position paper last year, however, has expressed its opposition against the provision in the draft common tower policy indicating that mobile network operators would no longer be able to build or construct their own telecommunication towers.

“It bears stressing that Smart is expressly granted the right to construct telecommunications towers pursuant to its franchise. Here, the proposed memorandum circular violates Smart’s franchise,” the wireless arm of PLDT said.

Smart and Globe’s legislative franchise gives them the right to build their own telecommunication infrastructure, including towers.

Under the draft common tower policy being pushed by presidential adviser for economic affairs and information technology communications Ramon Jacinto, 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.