TransCo seeks Congress nod to expand to telecom services

MANILA, Philippines — The National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) will ask Congress to allow it to include telecommunication services in its charter so it can take advantage of its massive transmission network to help pursue the government’s national broadband program.

TransCo will ask Congress to amend its charter to include telecommunication as part of its business, president Melvin Matibag said.

“We’re doing the policy already. I have been doing the informal talks already… most of the congressmen, senators I talked to are very interested,” he said.

This is instead of joining the agreement between the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to use the power grid’s fiber optics to implement the national broadband plan.

“They sent us a copy of memorandum of understanding (MOU). We have to review it and they’re asking for a meeting on Oct. 2,” Matibag said.

“But I have a better proposal, I want to diversify TransCo. I will ask congress to amend the charter of TransCo by making TransCo a transmission company and a telecommunications company,” he said.

Earlier, Matibag said TransCo should be part of the agreement between the DICT and NGCP to use the fiber optics network of the transmission line under the government’s national broadband program.

This is after NGCP submitted a draft MOU to DICT last July for the implementation of the national broadband plan.

NGCP president and CEO Henry Sy Jr. earlier said the grid operator is fully supportive of the program and would soon formalize its deal with the DICT.

Matibag said there is no government corporation engaged in telecommunications except for the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) which is the regulator and DICT which is into policy-making.

Allowing TransCo to go into telco services will allow government to compete with the duopoly in the telco sector, which are PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc.

“I want to engage in all kinds of telecom services considering because we have the biggest facilities. Globe and Smart are only using our towers as co-locations so that they can provide services in the provinces,” Matibag said.

If granted, TransCo will partner with private entities to finance its entry into the sector. “Funding will be the least of concerns when TransCo has the franchise and the power to do that. A lot of entities will participate and we’ll enter into a joint venture,” Matibag said.