Mislatel bullish on common tower tieup

MANILA, Philippines — The Mislatel consortium, the country’s incoming third telecommunications player, is bullish on securing common tower provider partners soon to help in its roll out plan as its deadline for submission among interested tower firms draws near.

Mislatel published last month an invitation to interested common tower companies to submit proposals on construction of towers which would be helpful in fulfilling the group’s commitment as the industry’s new major player.

The group has set on April 10 the deadline for the submission of proposals from interested tower providers.

“With about 20 MOUs (memoranda of understanding) and the level interest, we are very confident that we would have enough partners for our rollout,” Mislatel spokesperson Adel Tamano told The STAR.

He said the group has received some inquiries online, with a number asking for an extension of the April 10 deadline.

“Meetings with several tower companies are ongoing. Will await for deadline to have a better sense,” Tamano said.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) capped the pool of the country’s aspiring common tower providers at 15, all of which have signed respective MOUs with the agency.

These are ISOC Infrastructures Inc., ISON ECP Tower Singapore Pte. Ltd., Edotco Group Sdn Bhd and RT Telecom Sdn Bhd of Malaysia, IHS Towers, China Energy Equipment Co. Ltd., Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., MGS Construction Inc., American Towers, Frontier Tower Associates Management, Phil Tower Consortium (Global Networks Inc. and JTower Inc.), JS Cruz Construction and Development Inc., DT Towers, Korea’s Shinheung Telecom Co. Ltd., and Filipino-Indian consortium ALT Global Solutions Inc.

Mislatel, a group composed of state-owned China Telecom and two Dennis Uy-led companies, has commenced preparatory works on its network even as it still awaits finality on the Congress resolution involving its franchise to ensure that there would be no delay in its rollout.

It targets to start commercial operations of its network by late next year.

The group has committed to increase basic internet speed to 55 mbps and cover 84 percent of the country’s population over a five-year period through a total of P257 billion investment.

The DICT proposed last month to sign an MOU with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and with each telco company--PLDT, Globe, and Mislatel--for the construction of at least 50,000 common towers in seven years.

Under the proposed MOU, the DICT and NTC will identify sites where common towers are recommended to be built, with a target of 3,000 sites on the first year and gradually increasing it to 10,000 sites from the fifth to seventh year. 

Telcos will also coordinate with the two parties in the identification of priority sites. 

The DICT is targeting to finalize the common tower policy within a month after the telcos release the list of sites earmarked for tower rollout.