The National Telecommunications Commission said it will auction the mobile frequencies surrendered by duopoly PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. in a bid to encourage the entry of a new telecom player.
NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba said the regulator would discuss with the Department of Information and Communication Technology the terms of reference of the bidding.
“We will try to finish it [terms of reference] by mid of next year,” Cordoba said.
Cordoba said the government would bid out in bundle the 700 MHz, 2500-2700, 800 MHz and 3400-3500 MHz that were returned by PLDT and Globe, including the 3G frequencies of Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprise.
He said the possible third telecom player would be Mel Velarde’s Now Telecom and businessman Dennis Uy’s Converge ICT Solutions Inc.
A third potential player—San Miguel Corp.—backed out from challenging the duopoly of PLDT and Globe after its $1-billion joint venture with Telstra Corp. of Australia did not push through.
Instead of challenging the duopoly, San Miguel sold its telecom assets to PLDT and Globe for P70 billion.
NTC deputy commissioner Edgardo Cabarios had said the aspiring third player in the telecom market must invest at least P30 billion for the initial rollout of mobile telecom infrastructure.
Cabarios also said the new player should match the investments of PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. to catch up with the service of the existing players.
Both PLDT and Globe were investing more than P40 billion a year to increase their network capacity in a bid to provide better services.
Globe president and chief executive Ernest Cu had said “this industry is very difficult to penetrate because the barriers to entry are very expensive to overcome and because deployment of networks are very challenging due to local government issues.”
Cu cited the case of San Miguel, which early this year was on the verge of launching a telco business. However, following the sellout of San Miguel’s telco assets in late May, it was found that its existing telco infrastructure was barely adequate.
