Malacañang extended the franchise of Now Telecom Company Inc. for another 25 years, or until 2043.
Now said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange its franchise had been extended until 2043 under Republic Act No. 10972, which was signed for approval into law by President Duterte,
“With the said law, Now Telecom, as a telecommunications company, now has privileges similar to those granted to existing dominant players in the industry,” Now said.
The bill expands the nature and scope of the franchise granted to Now to wireless telecommunications systems, including mobile, cellular and fiber optics.
Now, which is owned by the family of Mel Velarde, is vying for the third major telecommunications player that will challenge duopoly of PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc.
Kristian Pura, head of business development of Now, said it was open to forming a consortium of local and foreign telcos.
“Several groups already reached out to us. We are engaging with them and we will be finalizing some details but as of now, I cannot comment,” he added.
Now has cellular mobile telephone service license as early as 2006, but never rolled out its network because of lack of mobile radio frequencies.
Under the draft rules of the Department of Information and Communications Technology on the selection of a third player, the prospective bidders should have a net worth of at least P10 billion with a Congressional franchise to operate telecom services.
It said in case of a consortium, Filipinos should control at least 60 percent and at least one of the members should be a holder of a Congressional franchise.
Prospective bidders should not be a related party to any telecom group with a mobile and broadband wireless market share of at least 40 percent, the DICT said.
The National Telecommunications Commission will assign frequency band 700 megahertz (MHz), 850 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2010 MHz, 2.5 GHz (gigahertz) 3.3 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 10.5 GHz to the new major company.
The new major player is required to post a performance bond equivalent to 0.005 of the amount of the committed investment for the first five years.
The DICT plans to hold the bidding on May 18, later than the original target of March this year.