ISOC-edotco acquires 70 sites to build common telecom towers

ISOC-edotco on Thursday, December 19, 2019 broke ground for its first common tower facility in the country. Company officials with Department of Information and Communications Technology Undersecretary Eliseo Rio Jr. lead the groundbreaking in Bacoor, Cavite. Ted Cordero, GMA News

BACOOR, Cavite — ISOC-edotco Towers Ltd. has acquired at least 70 locations to roll out common telecommunications towers in the Philippines.

ISOC and edotco committed to invest $100 million in the next three to five years, said edotco Group CEO Suresh Sidhu.

The target is to build 400 to 500 towers within the first year of operations.

During the groundbreaking ceremony of ISOC-edotco’s first common tower in the country, Sidhu said ISOC-edotco has so far secured 70 sites.

ISOC-edotco Towers is a joint venture between Malaysia’s edotco Group and the Philippines’ ISOC Infrastructure Inc. The companies formalized their partnership in September.

All the 70 sites are located in Cavite province, said ISOC-edotco country head William Walters.

“One tower in each location. It’s a combination of some ground-based towers and some rooftop as well,” Walters noted.

“We started in Cavite because our customer look for certain areas. They gave us certain number of sites ... In this case, it is determined by the requirements given by Globe,” Walters said.

In June, the ISOC-edotco group signed a memorandum of understanding with Globe Telecom Inc. to lease 150 towers in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon.

“The 70 towers, we will try to have it done by Q2 (second quarter) next year,” Walters said.

The company is spending around $130,000 on its common tower.

The cost of building towers depends on the tower type and other considerations such as wind integrity, according to Walters. For rooftop towers the cost is around $50,000, while ground-based towers may require up to $250,000.

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

According to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the common tower policy draft is likely to be completed in the next two months. —VDS, GMA News