DICT removes P10b capital requirement for third telecom player

February 27, 2018

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is scrapping the P10 billion capital requirement to select a third major telecom player to attract more bidders.

“The P10 billion capital required, that is not anymore ( required). We have been receiving this comment from the stakeholders themselves,” DiCT officer -in-charge Undersecretary Eliseo Rio said during the second stakeholders’ consultation Tuesday.

Under the draft joint rules issued by DICT and the National Telecommunications Commission, the prospective bidders should have a net worth of at least P10 billion with a Congressional franchise to operate telecom services.

Rio said the government is removing the five-year committed investment as a parameter in the selection of a new telco player.

"We are no longer basing it on the amount they will invest, we are now basing it on the actual resource, service they will commit. They will assure the public that they can roll out in the first five years,” he said.

Rio said the criteria now in selecting a third player will be based on the level of service and minimum coverage commitments in the next five years.

Under the old draft rules, prospective bidders should not be a related party to any telecom group with a mobile and broadband wireless market share of at least 40 percent, it said.

The NTC will assign frequency band ― 700 megahertz (MHz), 850 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2010 MHz, 2.5 GHz (gigahertz) 3.3 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 10.5 GHz to the new major player.

The new major player is required to post a performance bond equivalent.

Gamaliel Cordoba, NTC commissioner said the draft rules are not final and still subject for consultation with stakeholders and other government agencies.

Cordoba said they plan to publish the final version of the terms of reference on April 9 and the tentative date for accepting bids is on May 24, 2018.

"So worst case maybe first week of June we will be finished in the exercise,” he added. DMS