Cignal TV, Meralco-backed Radius launch broadband services

Meralco-backed Radius Telecoms Inc. and Cignal TV are seeking to take a share in the country’s broadband space through a new player: Red Broadband.

In a statement on Thursday, Radius Telecoms said it sealed a partnership with Cignal TV to offer unlimited fiber broadband and payTV service.

"Spending more of our lives online due to the pandemic, there is a crying need for faster and more reliable internet access for online education and work from home needs," Radius Telecoms said.

The company said it is the only telecommunications player in the country "that delivers services on an end-to-end fiber optic platform,” through Red Broadband.

Red Broadband is offering consumers unlimited fiber internet and Pay TV plan for P1,299 per month.

Both Radius Telecoms and Cignal TV are under businessman Manuel Pangilinan’s MVP Group.

Early this month, Pangilinan announced that PLDT Inc. is dropping its bid to acquire ABS-CBN's Sky Cable Corporation, citing antitrust concerns as any deal struck could possibly be overturned by the Philippine Competition Commission moving forward. 

Pangilinan said the company initially put out an offer for SkyCable given provisions under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2, which exempted several mergers and acquisitions valued below P50 billion from the scrutiny of the PCC.

"In the beginning kasi, when I think it was sort of, when we learned that SkyCable might be for sale, we deliberately did not, we were not interested because we knew that the PCC would not approve an acquisition by PLDT of Sky, because there was clearly a consolidation aspect to it," he said.

"We were encouraged by the Bayanihan Act 2 was passed so we put in an offer indeed to the ABS, but then on further review by ourselves and by our legal council, we were told that there's this risk of possible divestment by us on review starting the second year of the act so that's really the main reason. Beyond that, there's no other reason," he added.

Under the Bayanihan 2, mergers and acquisitions valued below P50 billion are exempted from the compulsory PCC notification, provided that it is entered into within two years from the effectivity of the law. — BM, GMA News