Foreign firms eyeing 3rd Telco slot under the Duterte Administration

The country can’t wait for a much better and cheaper service.

The duopoly dominated Telecommunications industry in the Philippines has long been overdue, they have lorded the industry with mediocre service which the public can’t help but pay its expensive inefficiency.

The Duterte administration took the guts to shake the industry in opening for a third player that will make, not only Smart and Globe up there game but to give the consumers the common Filipinos a third option.     *

file photo (photo credit to owner)

Over the weekend, the office of the Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar said that acting Information and Communications Technology Secretary Eliseo Rio, Jr. informed him that a Taiwanese telco and the Japanese company KDDI were also interested in the local telecommunications market.

In a different occasion Secretary Andanar said South Korea’s LG Plus and China Telecom were also interested.

“Secretary Rio (on Saturday) said the Japanese are also interested. This KDDI is also interested in the bidding and also a Taiwanese company whose identity Secretary Rio has yet to disclose,” Andanar said in an interview.

“But what is important really, besides the expected increase in internet speed, is the additional investment this will bring into our country,” he added.

Andanar said the third player was expected to invest P300 to P400 billion in the next five years.

“This is on top of the reinvestment of P50 billion by PLDT and Smart and the P48 billion to be invested by Globe,” he said.

It might be recalled, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte declared his aspirations in bringing a third telco player to start as earliest in 2018, principally to break the existing duopoly created by PLDT and Globe Telecom, which for decades have been the dominant telcos in the country.    *

And the solution in sight was for entry of a new player, and to make sure that player would not sell its shares in the long run to the first two, Andanar said a clause will be included in the agreement for the third player.

 

Report from PDI