The PLDT Group reaffirmed its commitment to faster telco infrastructure rollout by backing government initiatives to simplify permitting processes.
“PLDT and Smart continue to support the great strides accomplished by the ARTA and this administration in reducing the time, cost, requirements, and procedures of transacting with the government,” Smart joint strategic operations head Pamela Felizarta said.
“Working together, we were able to craft important policies and an executive issuance, paving the way for the faster rollout of telco infrastructure across the nation,” Felizarta said.
She cited key joint memorandum circulars and the Executive Order No. 32 issued last year by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., which streamlined the permitting process for the construction, installation, repair, operation and maintenance of telecommunications and Internet infrastructure in the country and its implementing rules and regulations (IRR).
PLDT and Smart said they have been working closely with ARTA, government agencies such as the Department of Information and Communications Technology, National Telecommunications Commission, Department of Interior and Local Government, the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, local government units and other industry stakeholders and telcos since 2019 to streamline the process of securing permits for the construction and deployment of telco infrastructure.
PLDT also supported ARTA’s telco workshops, which aimed to further address the bottlenecks in the permitting, licensing and authorizing process to improve connectivity which led to the issuance of the guidelines for the construction and energization of distribution and associated equipment for the supply of power to telecommunications towers within the franchise of electric cooperatives that seeks to reduce the processing time to 30 days.
PLDT is spending P75 billion to P78 billion in capital expenditures (capex) this year to expand its network nationwide.
The PLDT Group’s fiber footprint remains the most extensive in the Philippines. Homes passed reached almost 18 million in 70 percent of the country’s towns and 91 percent of provinces.
Smart’s combined 5G/4G network covers around 97 percent of the population.
