NTC to redraw rules for third telco
Regulators have been told to redraft the terms of reference (TOR) for a third telco player, further delaying the selection of a challenger to the PLDT-Globe duopoly.
Eliseo Rio, officer in charge of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, said an oversight committee had ordered the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to prepare new auction guidelines.
Rio, who said the NTC was not given a deadline, expects the process to take “roughly two weeks.”
Draft rules were earlier issued in February by the NTC and the DICT. Finalization, however, was complicated
when President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the creation of an oversight panel, which includes representatives from the Finance department and the National Security Adviser, to oversee the process.
Rio said the new rules would prioritize financial parameters, unlike the previous draft that focused on technical expertise.
“[T]he parameters are more on auction, the ability of the telco to show that it has the money to do that,” he told reporters earlier this week.
Rio said the last draft had not been scrapped as the oversight committee would use this as a reference to determine how best to identify a new player “that will be responsive, give services and compete with Globe and [PLDT’s] Smart.”
Asked when the actual auction would be held, Rio replied that the exact date remained uncertain. He also said that no announcement would be made during President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address next month.
Despite numerous delays that have led critics to declare the initiative “dead”, Rio said they were still determined to name the third telco before the end of the year.
“We are being pressured by the President and by the people, di namin pwedeng iwanan yun (we cannot leave that behind),” he said.
President Duterte had wanted the new player to be operational in the first quarter, citing widespread complaints over the quality of PLDT and Globe’s services.
Three companies — Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp (PT&T), NOW Corp. and ICT Converge Solutions Inc. — are reportedly firming up plans to bid for the third telco slot.
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