The Philippines is a step closer to a third operator after a consortium of four companies cleared the first stage of the selection process.
The Mislatel consortium, of which China Telecom is a member, has lodged a bid for the licence and must now wait for a decision by DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology), which should be reached within three days.
DICT noted that two other parties had also bid for the licence, but that their applications were rejected as they failed to provide the required documentation. The parties in question – PT&T and another consortium led by Sear Telecom – intend to challenge this.
The other members of the Mislatel consortium are Chelsea Logistics, its parent firm Udenna, and Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company – all of which are domestic companies. DICT selected Mislatel’s bid based on its strategies for nationwide coverage and minimum average connection speeds, which it promised to deliver with minimal capital and operational expenses.
A stock exchange filing by the consortium claimed that if it won its bid, Chelsea Logistic’s “expertise in logistics and distribution will enable the speedy development of the network”, and that it would strive to “prepare and to consolidate all the required resources in order to provide the best telecommunications services that Filipinos have been aspiring for”.
