The Philippines government ramped up plans to accelerate tower construction in the country, by issuing provisional certificates to tower companies, as part of plans to accelerate connectivity in the country.
In a statement, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) announced it issued the certificates to 23 tower companies (initially 24, two players merged), allowing them to “own, construct, manage, and operate one or more Passive Telecommunications Towers Infrastructures”.
“Due to the ongoing health crisis and in compliance with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s directive, provisional certificates of registrations were granted to ITCs (Independent Tower Companies) that already have existing MOUs/MOAs with DICT”, said DICT secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II.
“This should provide them with ample time to complete all the requirements for full ITC registration and permitting within the time period. Likewise, this should also provide enough time for ITCs to start their roll-out”.
The 23 companies given permission to deploy in the Philippines are: Aboitiz Infracapital; ACODA Towers; Alt-Global-Solutions; Transcend Towers Infrastructure; China Construction First Group and Wingan Construction and Development Corporation; China Construction Yangtze River; China Energy Equipment Corporation; CREI Management Services; Desarrollos Terrestres; EEI Corporation; Frontier Tower Associates Philippines; IHS Holding; Inforient; ISOC EDOTCO Towers; ISON Tower; J.S Cruz Construction and Development; MGS Construction; Phil-Tower Consortium; RT Telecom; Shinheung Telecom; Tamoin Industrial Services Corporation; Tiger Infrastructure; UA Withya Public Company.
The provisional certificates are valid until December 31, 2020.
Honasan added: “We need these tower companies to continue mobilizing and building out towers now, that’s why we granted them this provisional certificate to ease their transition under the new circular.
“We have to be diligent to ensure capacity of certified ITCs and we need to balance diligence with the urgency to improve our current ICT infrastructure,” he added.
