Chinese firm wants to build 10,000 common towers in PHL

China Energy Equipment Co. Ltd. (CEEC) is eyeing to build 10,000 common towers in the Philippines in a period of 12 months.

"We have an annual production capacity of 500,000 tons (100,000 steel towers), therefore, we are fully capable to supply the Philippine common tower project by investing at least $1 billion to build 10,000 common towers within the first 12 months," the company said in a statement.

According to its official website, CEEC is currently involved in survey, design and consultancy, construction and contracting, equipment manufacturing, civil explosives and cement production, investment, and other businesses.

The government's planned common tower policy seeks to free telecommunications companies from costly capital expenditures in building communication towers.

The towers will then be shared by incumbent telco operators -- Globe Telecom Inc., Mislatel Consortium, and PLDT Inc. which owns Smart Communications Inc.

"We are now ready to negotiate commercial agreements with any or all of the three telcos, namely Globe, Smart, and Mislatel," said CEEC.

This comes as DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio said the Philippines needs around 50,000 cell sites for the telcos to provide adequate service across the country.

At present, 15 companies have signed their respective memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

CEEC already in January inked an MOU with the DICT, which indicates that the company is capable of building common towers for the three telecommunications companies in the country.

In a press conference in Quezon City, Vice President Huang Fei earlier said the company is willing to invest up to $4.4 billion to build towers in the country.

Aside from CEEC, other firms that have expressed interest to build common towers are ISOC Infrastructures Inc., ISON ECP Tower Pte. Ltd., IHS Holding Ltd., edotco Group Sdn Bhd, RT Telecom Sdn Bhd., Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., MGS Construction Inc., Frontier Tower Associates Management Pte. Ltd., the consortium of Global Networks Inc. (GNI) and JTower Inc., American Tower Corp., J.S. Cruz Construction and Development Inc., Desarrollos Terrestres Towers, Shinheung Telecom Co. Ltd. and Alt-Global Solutions Inc.

Just last week, the DICT said it will no longer accommodate more tower firms bidding to enter the common tower sector in the country for the meantime. —LDF, GMA News