6 common tower builders signing up for faster cell site rollouts —DICT

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is entering into agreements with at least six telecommunications tower builders to have a faster rollout of the government’s common tower initiative.

On the DICT’s roster of telecom tower builders from various countries are:

• IHS Towers (Nigeria)
• edotco Group (Malaysia)
• American Towers (United States)
• ISOC Infrastructures Inc. (Philippines)
• ISON ECP Tower Pte. Ltd. (Singapore)
• China Energy Engineering Group (China)

The memos ISOC and ISON were signed last December, while Nigeria’s IHS Towers and Malaysia’s edotco got their commitment of support from DICT on Thursday, January 17.

The department is set to sign an MOU with China Energy Engineering Group on Friday, January 18.

American Towers signified its intention to join the roster of tower builders next week.

“American Towers has signified to sign on by next week,” DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. told GMA News Online.

The MOUs will hasten the rollout of new cellular towers, pending a common tower policy, Rio said.

Under the agreement, the DICT commits to facilitate permits, right of way, and other government support in infrastructure once the tower companies are able to secure a contract with any of the telco operators.

“The MOU clearly states that the common tower provider can only get support from the DICT if they have a solid contract with a telco,” Rio said.

The government is bent on implementing a common tower policy to reduce the cost of telecommunications services by freeing telcos from costly expenditures in building their own towers or cell sites.

Rio and the Presidential Adviser for Economic Affairs and Information and Communications Technology Ramon Jacinto disagreed over the proposed common tower policy.

Jacinto insists on limiting the number of common tower providers to only twp companies.

The DICT acting chief, however, said the number of tower builders must be determined by market forces and not by the government.

The towers will be shared by telco operators, like PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. as well as the third telco player.

Rio said the Philippines needs around 50,000 cell sites for the telcos to provide adequate service across the country.

The towers will be built by common tower companies at no cost to the government, and will be leased out to telcos. —VDS, GMA News