Common tower policy out by next month

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will release the common tower policy next month.

DICT is working on the final draft of the policy after getting inputs from different stakeholders on the number of tower companies that will be operating in the country as well as the financial and technical qualifications.

“By March (this year) we should come up with the announcement on common tower policy,” said Gregorio Honasan II, DICT secretary.

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Last year, DICT issued a notice of consultation and submission on its “Rulemaking on the Policy on Shared Passive ICT Infrastructure: Common Towers.”

Initially, DICT proposed to limit the number of independent tower companies (ITCs) to not more than five in the first four years of the policy’s implementation, later increasing this to at least seven ITCs.

The underlying reason is to promote the viability of the policy and to ensure high quality rollout consistent with the protection of national security, DICT said.

However, the “Rules on the Accelerated Roll-Out of Common Towers in the Philippines” as point of concept suggested that market forces be allowed to determine the number of ITCs.

More than 24 companies have indicated their interest in participating in the common tower initiative, having signed their memoranda of understanding with DICT.

DICT also sought comments on the proposed financial requirements which require ITCs to have net worth of least P3 billion and/of P10 billion, with evidence showing they have the ability to raise additional capital from consortium members.

On the technical qualification, DICT proposed to require consortium partners who hold at least 20 percent equity in the company or consortium to have at least five years of experience in constructing, owning, operating and/or maintaining a minimum of 1,000 towers or 5,000 towers.

DICT signed an agreement with 24 companies that intend to build shared towers in the country. Four of these have secured a deal with local telecom players: ISOC Infrastructure in partnership with edotco Ltd., Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc. in partnership with Frontier Tower Associates Management, American Tower and LCS Holdings Inc. of politician Luis Singson.

DICT targets to increase the common towers to 50,000 in the next seven to 10 years.

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