The Department of Information and Communications Technology is ready for the construction of common towers in the country.
Acting DICT Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. asked 15 tower companies to submit the list of sites where towers are recommended to be built.
The DICT earlier signed memoranda of understanding with the companies for the deployment of common towers in the country.
The common tower providers include five local companies such as Isoc Infrastructures Inc., Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., MGS Construction Inc., J.S. Cruz Construction and Development Inc. and ALT Global.
The rest are foreign companies including Ison ECP Tower Pte. Ltd., IHS Holding Ltd., Edotco Group Sdn Bhd, China Energy Equipment Co. Ltd., RT Telecom Sdn Bhd., Frontier Tower Associates Management Pte. Ltd., the consortium of Global Networks Inc. and JTower Inc., American Tower Corp., Desarrollos Terrestres and Shinheung Telecom.
Globe Telecom Inc., Smart Communications and incoming third telco Mislatel Consortium expressed their support in the common tower which the government had initiated.
Rio urged telecommunication companies to forge an agreement to speed up the fulfillment of common towers needed to upgrade the country’s communication services.
The DICT proposed the signing of an agreement between the National Telecommunications Commission and telcos for the construction of 50,000 common towers in seven years.
The agency planned to finalize the common tower policy this month after telecom firms bared the list of sites where the towers will be constructed.
It was learned that the DICT eyes to build 3,000 sites on year 1 and gradually increase it to 10,000 sites from year 5 to year 7.
“Telcos will be the end-user of these common towers so we fully need their cooperation to improve our overall telecommunication landscape,” said Rio.
Under the agreement, the DICT and NTC will help each other along with the telcos in identifying the different sites where the common towers will be built.
The country has less than 20,000 towers and needs additional 50,000 to be competitive with its neighboring countries in providing quality communication services to the public.
