The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said it will push front-loaded implementation of rollout plans of telecom firs, particularly for the first two quarters of 2021.
The agency has earlier asked the telcos to submit their rollout plans and are set to conduct starting next month bi-monthly meetings with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to ensure telcos’ plans for expansion and improvement in 2021 are completed on time.
NTC has initiated this moves to closely monitor telcos’ progress in helping the country improve its internet speed resulting to better global rankings in Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index.
The NTC said it has invited incumbent telcos Globe Telecom and Smart Communication to its first bi-monthly meeting with the DICT on the first week of February.
NTC in statement said in the meeting, telcos are expected to brief the NTC on the status of their network rollout and help them address issues, particularly red tape.
The bi-monthly meetings will allow the The latest Ookla Speedtest Global Index report ed a 14-notch jump in the Philippines’ ranking in mobile Internet connection speed reaching 22.50 megabits per second (Mbps) in December compared with 18.49 Mbps in, pulling the country’s rank up the past month to 29th from 34th out of 50 Asian countries and to 18th from 22nd out of 46 Asia Pacific countries.
These numbers are anticipated to improve further as the number of permits issued to telcos for the construction of towers continues to rise.
