CAOAYAN, Ilocos Sur—The common tower initiative of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has finally taken shape, after LCS Holdings Inc. of politician Luis Chavit Singson broke ground for the construction of the first shared telco infrastructure in the Philippines late Wednesday.
Set here in the fourth-class municipality of Caoayan, near the historic town of Vigan and Singson’s zoo called Baluarte, the first shared infrastructure in the Philippines will be able to accommodate as many as three of the telcos.
This marks the construction of the first-ever common telco tower in the Philippines, a country that aims to leapfrog into the digital future by building facilities for connectivity that it had lacked for over two decades now.
“It’s been a year since we started the common tower program, and we are now making history because we are going to build the first common tower now,“ ICT Undersecretary Eliseo M. Rio Jr. said.
Singson’s group partnered with Thai tech group Ua Withya Public Co. Ltd. to build its first common tower in Ilocos Sur, but the group remains open to more partners, as it gears to invest billions of pesos to build as many as 70,000 towers in the next decade.
“We have identified 6,000 sites now. We are in talks with small and big companies to build this. All in all, we are targeting 50,000, 60,000, or even 70,000 towers spread over 10 years,” he told the BusinessMirror.
The plan for Singson is currently in-sync with the network development initiative of Dito Telecommunity Corp., the third major player that is controlled by Davao-based businessman Dennis A. Uy.
Dito Telecommunity Chief Administrative Officer Adel A. Tamano noted that his group tapped LCS Holdings first because it believes that Singson “can make things happen.”
He added, “For the initial year, we plan to set up at least 3,000 telco towers—both by building them ourselves or by partnering with common tower providers.”
Dito Telecommunity Chief Technology Officer Rodolfo D. Santiago added that this target is doable, explaining that this is the number of telco towers needed to meet its coverage commitment to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
“As much as possible, we want to build faster, so whichever track is faster, that’s what we will do. If common tower companies will be able to build faster, then we will give them the bulk of the requirements,” he said.
Rio noted that the exercise on Wednesday afternoon sets the precedent for a common tower policy that will be issued by the end of October. “Soon, a common tower policy that will concretize this initiative will be issued, which will future-proof this concept for the administrations to come,” he said.
Image credits: Lorenz S. Marasigan