Globe Telecom has entered into a tripartite agreement with Filipino company ISOC Infrastructure and Malaysia-based tower giant edotco Group, becoming the first telco to support the common tower initiative of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
ISOC and edotco will build an initial 150 sites for Globe Telecom. The DICT signed agreements with 23 tower companies with ISOC and edotco leading the pack as among the first to do so. Despite the agreements, the government has yet to release a common tower policy governing towercos in the country.
The DICT targets to build at least 50,000 new common towers across the country in the next seven to ten years. The government agency also announced its recent plans to accelerate the building of 2,500 common towers in properties owned by government agencies. Telco stakeholders, however, are seeking the immediate release of the long-delayed Common Tower Policy.
Unlike in most countries, ICT infrastructure spends in the Philippines has been left entirely to the private sector. This brought about huge gaps in cell site and wired broadband builds all over the country. For instance, Vietnam has 90,000 cellular towers compared to the Philippines' 17,850 cell sites while recent data from TowerXchange showed that even Pakistan has 34,300 while Bangladesh has 30,000 cellular towers.
Ernest Cu, President and CEO, Globe Telecom
ICT infrastructure is the foundation of a highly-connected digital economy. While we have made significant improvements on the quality of internet experience, there is still a large gap to fill so we can be at par with our neighbors in terms of infrastructure.
Suresh Sidhu, CEO of edotco Group
Our efforts in the Philippines are motivated by the clear opportunity to reshape the telecommunications landscape and as an independent tower company, we are in the right position to facilitate and manage these advancements.
