The Department of Information and Communications Technology said it is scrapping the P10-billion capital requirement for the selection of a third major telecom player to entice more bidders.
“The P10-billion capital required, that is not anymore. We have been receiving this comment from the stakeholders themselves,” DICT officer -in-charge and Undersecretary Eliseo Rio said during the second stakeholders’ consultation.
Under the draft joint rules issued by DICT and the National Telecommunications Commission, the prospective bidders should have a net worth of at least P10 billion with a Congressional franchise to operate telecom services.
Rio said the government would also remove the five-year committed investment as a parameter in the selection of a new telco player.
Rio said the criteria in selecting a third player would now be based on the level of service and minimum coverage commitments in the next five years instead of committed investment.
“We are no longer basing it on the amount they will invest. We are now basing it on the actual resource, service they will commit. They will assure the public that they can roll out in the first five years,” he said.
Under the old draft rules, 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 NTC will assign frequency band “• 700 megahertz, 850 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2010 MHz, 2.5 gigahertz, 3.3 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 10.5 GHz to the new major player.
The new major player is required to post a performance bond equivalent.
NTC commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba said the draft rules were not yet final and still subject for consultation with stakeholders and other government agencies.
“We are asking help in the NEDA [National Economic and Development Authority ] , the PPP [Public Private Partnership Center], the Insurance Commission,” he said.
Cordoba said the government agencies planned to publish the final version of the terms of reference on April. He said the tentative date for accepting bids is May 24, 2018.
“So worst case, maybe first week of June, we will be finished [with] the exercise,” he said.