The Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) through its Connectivity Plan Task Force (CPTF) has proposed the construction of new towers between 2025 and 2028 to provide connectivity to geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDA).  

In the recent PSAC meeting, the CPTF headed by Ernest Cu, Globe Telecom Inc. president and chief executive officer, presented a blueprint to Malacañang to construct new towers in remote parts of the country through a public-private collaboration.

“The telco industry is fully dedicated to leveraging our partnership within the industry and with the government to reach underserved areas where the private sector has been unable to build because of the negative cost to business,” said Cu in a statement over the weekend.

This groundbreaking initiative is in line with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s pledge in his last State of the Nation Address to bring connectivity to remote areas. 

The proposal aims to bridge the digital divide by delivering essential telecom services to the Philippines’ most underserved communities. Currently, 7,063 barangays are classified as GIDAs, home to nearly 25 million residents.

At the meeting, Cu said over 600 Globe cell sites are operational in GIDAs to date.

In a major push to expand coverage, the country’s three mobile network operators (MNO), including Globe, proposed to maximize utilization of existing towers and build new infrastructure in GIDAs.

The telcos also proposed to provide subscriber identity modules (SIM) with data plans through government subsidy to unconnected Filipino households between this year and 2028.

The SIMs will include automatic monthly load seeding of 50GB for a year, which can cover the average usage of a five-member household. This ensures that even remote communities can be connected with mobile signals and the internet, enhancing their access to education, healthcare, government services and economic opportunities.

“Once the government lays a bigger stake in our push for inclusive connectivity and invests in our proposal, this will mark a milestone in our collective aspiration for a Digital Philippines. Together, we will be able to create pathways to opportunities and essential services that can significantly improve lives,” said Cu.

By maximizing the use of existing sites while strategically building new ones in underserved areas, the project will minimize overlaps among providers and optimize coverage across the country.

This allows each barangay in GIDAs to receive telco support from at least one provider, avoiding unnecessary competition and duplication of efforts in a single area.

Beyond the immediate infrastructure rollout, the CPTF is also advocating for critical legislative support to strictly enforce the streamlining of the permitting process for new cell sites, ensure consistent energization for telco towers and rationalize spectrum user fees.

The CPTF is under the PSAC, which President Marcos Jr. established to foster public-private sector collaboration.