RJ Jacinto now open to having more than 2 common tower firms

Presidential Adviser on Economic Affairs and Information and Communications Technology Ramon “RJ” Jacinto is now open to have more than two tower companies that will lease their facilities to telcos.

On the sidelines of the Senate Committee on Public Services on the third telco, Jacinto told reporters that he is amenable to have at least four common tower firms.

“Pwede more than two... Siguro up to four siguro,” the presidential adviser said.

However, Jacinto said that though he is open on increasing the number of tower companies a cap must still be imposed and existing telcos should still be prohibited from building their own infrastructure.

“Kung papabayaan mo sila magtayo, di na sila mag-re-rent sa iba. Back to the same problem,” he said.

In his proposed common tower policy, Jacinto is bent on accrediting only two tower firms in the first four years of the policy’s implementation.

During the Senate hearing, senators Grace Poe and Juan Miguel Zubiri raised concerns on the Presidential adviser’s proposed policy saying this might be anti-competitive.

Zubiri said Jacinto is asking “for a duopoly” in the tower industry, while Poe said limiting the number of players to two is “suspicious.”

“Limiting it to two players is quite suspicious. Yes telcos are not fast in rolling out, but the government is also to blame for this. There are also areas in the country where homeowners don't like cell towers in the area,” Poe said.

“There are many factors and that is not just the telcos’ shortcomings. It is just illogical for me to accept that even the telcos are not allowed to build towers,” she added.

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.

Department of Information and Communications Technology Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio and Jacinto locked horns over the proposed common tower policy as Jacinto insists on limiting the number of common tower providers to only two. 

In a separate interview, Rio reiterated his stance that the number of tower builders must be determined by market forces and not by the government.

“Why put a cap ... all of these are market forces driven. Because it's market forces, the regulatory body should never put a cap ...,” Rio said.

The common tower initiative of the government envisions that cellular towers be shared by telco operators, like PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. as well as the third telco player.

The towers will be built by common tower companies at no cost to the government, and the cell sites will be leased by the telcos.

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

The DICT has initiated to enter agreements with tower builders to roll out new cellular towers pending the issuance of a common tower policy.

So far the DICT has signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ISOC Infrastructures Inc. and Singapore’s ISON ECP Tower Pte. Ltd.on December 2018 and with Nigeria’s IHS Towers and Malaysia’s Edotco Group on January 17.

The ICT department also signed an MOU with China Energy Engineering Group on January 18.

Under the agreements, the DICT commits to help tower companies in facilitating permits, right of way, and other government support in infrastructure if they 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 earlier. —LDF, GMA News