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Friday, March 29, 2024

Government declares Mislatel as third telecom player

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The National Telecommunications Commission on Monday confirmed Mislatel Consortium, led by Udenna Corp. of businessman Dennis Uy and China Telecommunications, as the third major telecom player.

The NTC en banc, in a three-page order, confirmed the status of the new major player in favor of Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company Inc. and partners Udenna Corp., Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp., and China Telecommunications Corp. in accordance with the Section 7.6 of Memorandum Circular 09-09-2018 and Section 9.8 of the Invitation to Participate.

It gave the Mislatel Group 90 days to submit the necessary documents, including the roll-out plan and performance security.

Mislatel was also required to secure a certificate of public convenience and necessity and radio frequency after the 90-day period. 

The NTC will assign the frequencies 700 megahertz, 850 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2010 MHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.3 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 10.5 GHz to the new major player.

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“If they could not accomplish in 90 days, they will be disqualified,” Department of Information and Communications Technology Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio told reporters.  

Rio said he expected Mislatel to operate commercially by mid-2019. 

“Better telecommunications services for Filipinos will only succeed if all our stakeholders–national government, LGUs, civil society groups, and even private industries, and even our competitors”•will work with us to achieve the common goals of better, cheaper, and more widely available telecommunications. In fact, even telco players that did not win the bid or decided not to bid, such as PT&T, Converge, etc. can partner with us and we can use their existing telecommunications facilities for a faster roll-out,” Mislatel Consortium spokesperson Adel Tamano said. 

“Furthermore, we emphasize our long-standing view that in order to make this venture a success, we will make other players, such as the regional telecommunications companies, cable operators, and broadband providers, our partners. This will create jobs and business opportunities that will not only improve the telecommunications sector but will boost the economy as a whole. We aim to be a positive force in the telecommunications industry and for the country as a whole,”  Tamano said.

Mislatel Consortium committed to improved the country’s telecommunications capability within five years, by increasing basic internet speed to 55 mbps and covering more than 80 percent of the country’s population.

The consortium, during the bid evaluation, got a commitment rate of 456.84 out of 500 points and offered a P25.7-billion performance bond, if it failed to deliver its promises to provide faster telecommunications and internet services in five years.

Mislatel committed to invest P257 billion over a five-year period, including P150 billion in its first year of operations.

The group committed to provide 27 megabits per second of internet speed in its first year, and 55 mbps in five years.

The company plans to cover 84 percent of the population in five years and 34 percent in its first year of operation.

Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. failed to submit a certification of technical capability from the NTC, while Singson’s Sear Telecom was disqualified for not submitting the “participation security” of P700 million.

PT&T  asked the Supreme Court to overturn a decision of the selection committee of the NTC to disqualify the company from the bidding.

PT&T filed a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court assailing the acts of the NTC and the committee in the selection of the third telco that would challenge the duopoly of PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom.

 

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