A Philippines’ House of Representatives committee will next week hold a hearing on the government’s common tower policy to address the industry opposition and potential legal hurdles of the proposal.
The House Committee on ICT will look into the status of the Department of ICT’s common tower policy during a hearing scheduled for Monday, committee chairman Victor Yap told.
Representatives of Globe Telecom and PLDT, the National Telecommunications Commission, the Department of ICT and the Philippines Competition Commission are all expected to attend.
Under the proposed policy, tower companies will be allowed to build and operate common telecom towers that can be leased to operators. The DICT has signed agreements with a number of tower companies ahead of the introduction of the policy.
As well as helping to improve the Philippines’ telecommunications infrastructure, the common tower policy is aimed at allowing the market’s upcoming third operator Mislatel more quickly deploy a mobile network.
But Globe and PLDT have objected to the draft terms, which had proposed that the number of cell site builders be restricted to two registered tower providers.
According to the operators, this could lead to an infringement of the rights to own and establish cell sites that is stipulated in their legislative franchises.