MANILA — Malacañang said Thursday that although President Rodrigo R. Duterte still wants to stick to the time frame to allow the entry of a third telecommunications (telco) carrier by March this year, he is also aware that the deadline might be pushed.
Duterte earlier rejected the request of Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Officer-in-Charge Eliseo Rio Jr. to extend until May the deadline to name the third telco carrier.
Rio sought for an extension to give prospective telco players more time to prepare bidding documents.
“OIC Rio had to move the deadlines because it is physically impossible to meet them. The President did not approve of the extension but I think the turn of events will eventually make it necessary to move the deadlines,” Roque said in a press briefing in Iloilo.
On Monday, the DICT released its guidelines for the selection of a new major player in the local telecommunications industry.
At present, the Philippine Telegraph and Telephone (PT&T), Now Corp., and Converge ICT are eyeing to form a consortia with foreign partners, as they expressed interest to become the new major telco player.
Telco companies from China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have likewise signified their interest to invest in the industry.
On Tuesday, Duterte bared that India is “interested” to become a new major player in the Philippine telecommunications industry.
He said he had invited India to invest in the local telco industry in talks with Indian businessmen during his official visit there last month.
DICT said a prospective third telco player needs to invest PHP300 billion to PHP 400 billion over the next five years. (Azer Parrocha/PNA)
