DICT says third telco initiative is not dead

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Saturday said that the government's initiative to challenge the dominance of Globe and PLDT with a third telecommunications player will push through.

DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. belied the claims of civil society group Democracy.Net.PH co-founder Pierre Tito Galla that the third telco initiative is "dead."

Galla, in his Facebook post, did not provide the source of his claim but said in the comments section that the oversight committee overseeing the selection of third telco player should release the minutes of its meetings.

"There was an oversight committee meeting held yesterday, and the third telco [initiative] ay tuloy pa rin," Rio told GMA News Online.

On April 6, President Duterte created an oversight committee to facilitate the entry of the third telco and assist the National Telecommunications Commission in the formulation of the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the selection and assignment of radio frequencies of the third telco player.

The committee is composed of representatives from the DICT, Department of Finance, Office of the Executive Secretary, and National Security Adviser. The DICT representative sits as the chairperson, with the DOF representative as vice-chairperson.

The DICT chief, however, admitted that there will be delays in the drafting of the guidelines or terms of reference for the selection of the third telco player.

The Department earlier said that the winning bidder for the third telco slot will be named before the end of the year, or around September as "the best case scenario."

Rio declined to give further details of what was discussed during the oversight committee meeting.

"But we will solve this as soon as possible," he said.

Because the industry is considered a duopoly dominated by rivals PLDT and Globe, calls have been made by no less than President Duterte and the public at large for a third telco player to raise the quality of service while lowering the costs to consumers. — MDM, GMA News