Building more towers needs joint effort

Political rants by the Commander-in-Chief, more so if consistently spewed over a period of four years, still carry some force. Since day one, when the President assumed office, he has threatened in varying degrees to penalize the country’s dominant telecommunication companies if both fail to improve on services.

Smart and Globe have, and rightly so, passed the blame on the difficulty of getting cell towers built, and this has prompted the best of the President’s men to move hell and high water to barrel through most, if not all, of the obstacles blocking this path.

We are now, therefore, seeing a crumbling wall slowly eroded by persistent hammering, and even if many may view this as political muscle more than rant, especially with the entry of Dito Telecommunity as the third anointed challenger to the duopoly, the justification of public good is difficult to contest.

It bears to remind all that Dito is owned by Dennis Uy, a good friend of the President dating back to the Davao mayoral days, who responded to his private and public expletives about selective coverage, expensive rates, and slow connectivity telecommunication services.

Getting Dito off the ground and running, even with the “backing” of China’s state-run China Telecom, will certainly not be a walk in the park as Globe’s CEO Ernest Cu has pointed out. Especially in this pandemic, the first years of operations will be heavy on investments and almost nil in earnings.

But for Dennis Uy, that’s what long-time and loyal friendship is all about.

Getting ready for take off

The stage, mercifully though, seems to be ready for the take off. The goal is to build 50,000 towers within the next five years through the cooperation of independent tower companies to bring numbers closer to the ideal mass that would create an environment where most parts of the country would be able to be digitally connected.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology, together with a host of national government agencies and local governments as represented by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), have agreed to trim down the working time to get a tower constructed to just 16 days from an average of 200 days before.

In the bill extending the Bayanihan to Recover as Once Act that expired last June, a provision introduced by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon will suspend many of the permits required in building cell towers, except the building permit, for a good three years. The bicameral committee had recently passed Bayanihan 2 and the proposed law should soon be transmitted to the Office of the President.

The DILG had said last week that more than 1,500 applications for towers have been approved in 55 provinces and 25 cities already, and more than 400 would likely be given the green light within the year.

Dito has reported that it has completed 300 operational cell sites notwithstanding the inconveniences brought about by the lockdowns during the last months, and that it would be able to deliver on its commitment of 1,300 cell sites by Jan. 8, 2021, which is now the extended deadline given the challenger company.

Political will to implement common tower policy

Clearly, there is a need to build the targeted 50,000 cell sites in the next five years across the country to improve coverage and connectivity speeds. But a number of other challenges need to be confronted if we want the road ahead to be fit for smooth sailing.

DICT Undersecretary Ramon “RJ” Jacinto says that the initially issued policy guidelines for common towers has to be amended and strengthened, warning that the policy, as it is now worded, may be doomed to fail and as much as $4 billion in potential investments likely to be lost if appropriate changes are not introduced soon.

RJ emphasized that there must be political will to implement provisions, such as mandatory sharing by mobile operators of towers unless technically not feasible. Furthermore, only financially capable and experienced independent tower companies should be accredited to build towers.

Presently, the common tower policy, as approved last June, has given eligibility to 24 companies, too many by world standards and more importantly, not attractive enough for independent tower companies with the right expertise and resources.

Already, IHS Towers had formally withdrawn from the Philippines on grounds that it may not be able to justify its investments given that there are only three telecommunication companies who will be its clients. IHS has the biggest tower count in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East today.

There is also the reluctance of American Tower Corp. and Japan’s Sojitz to continue operating in an environment where there are too many competitors without the financial capability and long-term management and operating experience.

Making investment environment conducive

While the initial policy guideline limiting the number of tower companies was frowned upon by Philippine Competitive Commission as being anti-competition, RJ Jacinto believes that submission of additional justifications may eventually elicit a favorable ruling from PCC.

We must find a credible middle ground that will ensure that we can have a workable tower policy through the next five years. Aiming to build 50,000 towers in five years entails billions of pesos in investments, and if you want the private sector to take this on, the environment must be more conducive.

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