A quick look at the three firms that submitted bids to be third telco

MANILA, Philippines — Three firms submitted their documents Wednesday morning in the hopes of becoming the Philippines' third major telecommunications company.

Only Mislatel Consortium — a joint venture between Davao businessman's Dennis Uy's Udenna Corporation, its subsidiary Chelsea Logistics Holdings and state-owned China Telecommunications Corporation — was found qualified by the National Telecommunications Commission selection committee.

Sear Telecom — a consortium by TierOne Communications and LCS (Luis Chavit Singson) Inc. — and Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (PT&T) were both disqualified supposed incomplete documents.

READ: Udenna-China Telecom lone bidder left for third telco | 3rd telco: NTC hurdles NOW Telecom complaint; gets sued again by PT&T

Sear was disqualified for not having the required participation security while PT&T lacked certification of capability. Both firms said they will file an appeal with the National Telecommunications Commission.

Mislatel Consortium

Udenna Corporation and Chelsea Logistics teamed up with China Telecom to bid as a consortium for the new major player in the Philippines' telecommunications market.

China Telecom is the ninth largest telco company in the world by financial metrics, according to the 2017 Forbes Global 2000 list. The state-owned firm is also the third biggest mobile service provider in China, based on the DBS Group Research.

It has an average bandwidth of 62 mbps for wireline broadband subscribers. As of September, the Chinese firm has more than 294 million subscribers, 80 percent of which are on the 4G network, China Telecom said in a press release.

Udenna, on the other, primarily has business interests in petroleum and oil (Phoenix Petroleum), shipping and logistics (Chelsea Logistics), real estate (Udenna Development), education (Enderun Colleges) and infrastructure (Udenna Infrastructure).

Sear Telecom

Mindanao-based TierOne has started delivery of bandwidth to the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) "where broadband has been identified as a key driver of growth," the firm said in its official website.

TierOne is planning to provide 100 mbps internet connection to underserved areas in the country by building 50,000 towers. It has a partnership with Boston-based Parallel Wireless and Finland-based Nokia for the project.

LCS Inc., meanwhile, was founded by former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson. Its subsidiaries include the Chavit Tree Project, Satrap Power Corporation, Platinum Skies, Go Sport, Satrap Mining, travel documentary series Happy Life, Casha and the official host committee of the 65th Miss Universe.

PT&T

PT&T's pure fiber optics network offers internet speed as fast as 75 mbps for 1.5-gb movies, 25 mbps for 10-mb images and 6 mbps for for 20-mb presentations, according to its website.

The company is currently under its legislative franchse under Republic Act 10894, which was issued on July 2016. This allowed them to operate as a telecommunications company for another 25 years in the Philippines.

On Tuesday, PT&T filed a case against the NTC for setting the 10-year minimum technical requirement in favor of foreign firms bidding for the third telco slot, claiming that it is discriminatory to local companies.

"We do not see any valid reason why a distinction should be made between foreign and local telecommunications companies in so far as the interpretation and application of the term ‘national scale’ applies," PT&T president and chief executive officer James Velasquez said. — Patricia Lourdes Viray