THE third telecommunications company to be allowed in the country will no longer be required to have a paid-up capital of P10 billion, an official said Tuesday.
“The P10-billion capital required will be out. We have been receiving this comment from the stakeholders themselves,” Eliseo Rio, officer in charge of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, said during the second public consultation on telecommunications in Quezon City.
The DICT is requiring the companies interested to become the third telecoms service provider here to have a congressional franchise, be at least 60 percent Filipino-owned and not related to PLDT-Smart and Globe Telecom, the two telecoms providers here.
The draft joint memorandum circular released by the DICT and the National Telecommunications Commission on Feb. 19 required the interested bidders to become the third telecoms provider in the country to have a minimum capital of P10 billion.
But Rio said the stakeholders in the telecoms sector were concerned about the capital requirement.
“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,” Rio said.
“Before, we were to select on the basis of the amount they would invest. But we took that out because they said they should be graded on the efficiency of their system.
“So now, we will not be looking at their money but their committed roll-out, the areas they will cover and the internet speed.”