The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has committed to review existing rules to expedite the tower buildup in the country.
During the public consultation with independent tower companies (ITC) last week, Emmanuel Rey Caintic, DICT acting secretary, said the agency will review existing protocols to address the mounting concerns of ITCs and help accelerate the rollout of infrastructure in the country.
The ITCs said while application requirements were substantially lessened with the help of the joint memorandum circular (JMC) that was agreed on in a previous consultation, some local government units (LGU) have their own set of requirements.
In response, Caintic urged the ITCs to make use of the “Tower Watch,” a dedicated platform established by the DICT where ITCs can submit their documentary requirements.
“We will be establishing a Technical Working Group that will collate and determine various concerns from the ITCs alongside bringing them to the attention of the concerned LGUs.
We will be harnessing efforts from the different national government agencies,” said Caintic.
Caintic also tasked the DICT’s regional offices to monitor tower construction within their jurisdictions and to ensure documentary and building code compliance to avert any untoward challenges.
He also mulled over the possibility of an automatic review mechanism that will make way for faster and transparent transactions among ITCs, LGUs and the national government.
As the ITCs raised various concerns, the DICT noted possible initiatives and actions it can push forward to improve its processes.
“We should seek adaptive resolutions to our problems. I will make the process easy for ITCs to build up more towers faster, but I will regulate appropriately,” Caintic said.
In July last year, the DICT and the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) revised and expanded JMC No. 001, s. 2021 to harmonize the provisions of the original policy and Republic Act No. 11494, or the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act.
The JMC has been instrumental in reducing procedural delays in securing the necessary permits and documentary requirements in the construction of common towers.
According to ARTA, the policy shortened the timeline to the target period of 16 days compared to the original 214 days. It also brought down permits from 30 to eight, and documentary requirements from 86 to 35.
The ratio of cell site towers to the number of households in the country is still way below the ideal 100 to 200 households per tower, as the current ratio is 4,000 households per tower, according to the DICT.
With this, the DICT intends to accelerate the tower build by establishing a wireless broadband backbone using existing and new government facilities, through working with common tower companies. This will help expedite the bailout of 30,000 towers in the country through public-private partnership and other types of partnership.
