Third telco deadline to be followed – Rio

President Rodrigo Duterte wants a third telco to be named before the end of the year and the acting Information and Communications Technology (DICT) chief said concerned agencies would make haste to comply.

“DICT will make sure that this happens,” said Eliseo Rio, officer-in-charge DICT in a text message on Tuesday.

“The ball is now at the hands of the NTC (National Telecommunications Commission)…,” he added.

In a televised interview, Duterte warned that he would “take over” if the entry of a challenger to the PLDT-Globe duopoly was nowhere in sight by “early November.”

“By Christmas, alam na ng mga tao kung sino ang (the people will know who is the) third telco player,” he added.

In a September 10 progress report, the NTC said it had started to work on incorporating key inputs from a recent public hearing into a draft memorandum circular (MC).

The agency said it was looking to tap experts from the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission and was targeting to finish revisions “this week or early next week.”

The draft MC will then be presented to an oversight committee created last April to facilitate the entry of the new player.

The government has decided to choose the third telco based spending, population coverage and minimum average broadband speed commitments.

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