Udenna Corp. of Davao-based tycoon Dennis Uy has followed through on its interest to participate in the government’s plan to bring in a New Major Player for the telecommunications sector.
The conglomerate purchased selection documents from the National Telecommunications Commission on Oct. 8 as “a confirmation of the said expressed interest,” Udenna said in a statement Friday.
“Specifically, in the area of logistics, a crucial component of the telecommunications industry, Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp. will explore opportunities in this sector,” the statement said, referring to Udenna’s shipping subsidiary.
But for the time being the firm said it was still “doing its own comprehensive research and study on the probable participation in the bid.”
Nothing has been finalized yet, including potential partnerships with foreign or local companies, Udenna stressed.
The Udenna Group has grown exponentially over 15 years.
It listed Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. and Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp. on the Philippine Stock Exchange in 2007 and 2017, respectively.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology, which oversees the NTC, recently amended its Administrative Order 11, series of 2018 to ensure the successful entry of an NMP in the public telecommunications market, following the mandate of President Rodrigo Duterte.
It said interested NMP participants shall not be related to the other dominant telco players and shall have no uncontested outstanding liabilities such as Supervision and Regulation Fees and Spectrum User Fees, other penalties, surcharges and interests to the NTC as of Oct. 1 this year.
“They shall also have an experience in the provisioning, delivery and operations of telco services for at least 10 years on a national scale,” the AO signed by DICT officer-in-charge Eliseo Rio added.
Additionally, the revised order said interested participants shall be subject to a qualifying point system based on their “highest committed level of service” on coverage, broadband speed, capital and expenditures for the first five years.