DICT set to implement proof of concept for 1,000 possible tower sites
By AJ Siytangco
By Charissa Luci-Atienza
The government is set to implement the proof of concept for the proposed common tower policy within two to three months to ensure that the public would enjoy faster internet connectivity, as the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is "laying out" the possible 1,000 towers sites for the common tower project.
At Monday’s House Committee on Information and Communications Technology hearing on the government’s proposed common tower policy, DICT Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. said implementation of the proof of concept for the common tower policy would take two to three months.
“We started a TWG (technical working group), actually we met last week, the meeting continues so that two to three months we will have a proof concept involving about 1,000 towers, hard-to-get places, 'yung missionary areas all the spectrum of where the towers were supposed to be,” he told the panel, chaired by Tarlac Rep. Victor Yap.
He explained that the proof of concept will be their guideline on how to implement the common tower policy, which allows cell tower firms to build and deploy communication infrastructures that may be leased to telecommunications companies to further improve the delivery of their services to the public.
“We are hoping na maidentify ang 1, 000 towers two weeks from now, ma-identify na ang locations so we will now give these to the common towers,” Rio said.
He said they are eyeing the construction 50,000 towers within seven years to make the country’s broadband services at par with those of other countries.
“We were able to get 500 sites from telcos themselves 'yung sinasabi nila na for the past five years na hindi kami makapaglagay. We have sites na controlled by DICT na 200 sites with existing towers na nakatiwangwang. Maguumpisa na ang proof of concept of common towers so that the telcos having no experience at all can decide and see and from the results of this proof of concept, we can improve the mechanics of having a common tower policy in the the Philippines going towards putting up 50,000 towers in seven years,” the DICT official said.
“Binibilisan na namin, within three months magkaron ng implementation ng proof of concept. From the results of the proof of concept , we can come up with better policy babaguhin namin kung saan dapat babaguhin. We need 50,000 within seven years,” Rio said, citing that the Philippines has the lowest tower density in the region with 0.14 towers per 1,000 subscribers, which is far from the ideal ratio of one tower per 1,000 subscribers.
He told the panel that the cost of setting up a tower amount to P3 to P5 million.
Rio also informed the panel that a total of 10 common tower providers signed a memorandum of understanding with the DICT for the common tower policy. These include Aboitiz, China Energy Equipment Cp., LTD; EDOTCO Group SDN BHD, IHS Holdings Limited, ISOC Asia Telecom Towers, ISON, MGS Construction Inc, RT Telecom SDN BHD, American Towers Inc., Frontier Tower Associates Management Pte Ltd, GNI-J Tower Inc. Consortium, J.S. Cuz Construction and Development Inc., Dessarrollos Terrestres, Inc., Shin Heung, Alt Global Inc., CREI Management Services FZE, Tamoin Industrial Services Corporation (TISCO), EEI Corporation and Tiger Infrastructure Pte. Ltd (TIPL). (Charissa M. Luci-Atienza)