Before the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) releases its infrastructure sharing policy next month, the Better Broadband Alliance (BBA) had a few things to say. In a letter shared with reporters, BBA Acting Secretary Eliseo M. Rio, Jr., stated that there should be guarantees factored in, regarding the proposed two-company limit in the first four years. A chief concern is that there is currently no provision for tower deployment that incorporates the plans of the various providers.
Rio recommended the government allow for early deployment if the initial carriers, “show little indication of rolling out in unserved or underserved areas.” In an article in Business World, Denise A. Valdez also reported that the speed of tower deployment could be hampered by the two carrier limit, a restriction that was worrisome to Globe Telecoms, Inc., Telenor Group, American Tower Corp. and Frontier Tower Associates. The expectation is that an unlimited number of carriers would be allowed to participate after the four year introductory period.
The BBA letter called for DICT to include details about pole sharing, sustainability, and disaster recovery. The letter also spoke up for smaller local carriers who may find themselves edged out by major carriers. “While it is assumed that the primary clients of the towercos and pole owners will be (Globe and Smart Communications, Inc.), shared infrastructure should also, and more importantly, serve the small players and broadband service providers whose deployments have been limited to date, due to the absence of support infrastructure, such as towers and poles, which, on their own, the small players cannot build and operate.”
October 17, 2018
