3rd Telco Player to Pay P3B for 3G Frequency
- Brian Jules Campued
- Jan 23, 2018
- 1 min read
PLDT, Inc. Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Manny V. Pangilinan, said that the new telco player shall pay a compensation at least P3 billion for the 3G frequency surrendered by the company to the government.
The third-generation frequency, together with all the available mobile frequencies, will be part of the spectrum that will be offered to the future telco player in the Philippines.
It was turned over by PLDT unit, Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprise (CURE) in 2012 as part of the merger with Gokongwei group’s Digitel Telecommunications Philippines, Inc. (Digitel)
However, Pangilinan cleared that it’s not up to PLDT but to NTC to decide how much it would cost.
“I don’t know how much it would cost or at what price it would be bid for. But P3 billion is a good price,” MVP explained.
Meanwhile, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) revealed the guidelines for the selection for the entry of a new major telco in the Philippine telecommunications market, earlier this month.
DICT officer-in-charge Eliseo Rio, Jr. said that the potential applicant for the telco slot should invest at least P250 billion to P300 billion over five years and the applicant with the highest committed investment will be selected.
Rio also added that the 12 percent of the entire frequencies, as estimated by Philippine Competition Commission, will be enough for the third telco to compete with Globe Telecom, Inc. and PLDT, Inc.
