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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider Meralco affiliate, PhilTower to tie up for telco venture

Meralco affiliate, PhilTower to tie up for telco venture

Published Feb 7, 2024 08:35 am

At A Glance

  • While the Philippines is highly regarded as the 'texting capital of the world' and its consumers have very high presence across social media platforms, laggy internet connections remained as major predicament compared to peers in the Asian region.

Miescor Infrastructure Development Corporation (MIDC), which is an affiliate company of Manila Electric Company (Meralco), is firming up a joint venture (JV) deal with Phil-Tower Consortium Inc. (PhilTower) for investment rollout of 4G and 5G mobile infrastructure in the telecommunications industry.

“The JVCo will provide improved coverage for its mobile network operator-clients and continue to drive investment in digital infrastructure in the Philippines,” Meralco has noted in its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

MIDC, in particular, is a partnership between Meralco Industrial Engineering Services Corp (MIESCOR) and New York-headquartered Stonepeak, an investment firm that has been expanding its portfolios in infrastructure developments and other real assets.

There are no specific figures given yet on the investment scale that the propounded MIDC-PhilTower joint venture company (JVCo) will be pursuing, but it was indicated that the buildout will be spread throughout the country.

“The JVCo will have Philippine-wide coverage and is well placed to support the growing connectivity needs of the country,” Meralco stressed.

Once all terms and details of the joint venture are finalized, the companies conveyed that their partnership will be “subject to regulatory review by the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Competition Commission.”

PTCI is an independent tower company that already shored up its portfolio with 1,250 towers catering to customers across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

That company was formed by Global Network Inc (GNI) and Japanese telco infrastructure provider JTower Inc. in 2019, the timeframe when the Philippines had opened that segment of its telco tower development market both to local and foreign investors.

For MIDC, it also has 1,250 towers that are primarily located in Luzon – and its anchor market is its sale and lease back arrangement with Globe.

Given the robust growth trajectory for independent tower companies in the country, PhilTower and MIDC are eyeing that they would be able to “maximize their complementary geographic footprints to provide better connectivity for their customers.”

While the Philippines is highly regarded as the ‘texting capital of the world’ and its consumers have very high presence across social media platforms, laggy internet connections remained as major predicament compared to peers in the Asian region.

The wider liberalization of the Philippine telecommunications industry is being advanced to address the ‘connection dilemma’, hence, fresh capital flow is a headway being fervidly wished for in the sector.

Related Tags

PHILTOWER 5G coverage PH MIDC Manila Electric Company (Meralco) telco tower
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