Globe’s tower company gets SEC green light

Globe Telecom Inc. has secured approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to set up a company that will build telecommunications towers.

In a regulatory filing submitted Wednesday by Globe senior vice president for Law and Compliance Marisalve Ciocson-Co, the telco said it has received the approval of the SEC on the incorporation of GTowers Inc. on August 20.

“The establishment of a tower company will help speed up the building and deployment of cellular towers in the country,” Globe said.

On July 6, the telco disclosed that it started the process of incorporating a separate tower holding company.

Globe said the new company will “operationalize” the divestment of all or part of its tower assets.

Other telcos can lease the towers under standard and non-discriminatory commercial terms.

The lack of cellular towers has long been identified as the greatest barrier to seamless mobile internet connectivity in the country with no viable short-term solution due to permitting issues, according to Globe.

A country with a population of around 100 million, the Philippines has one of the lowest tower densities in the world at less than 20,000.

Approximately 50,000 more towers must be constructed in order to accommodate an exponentially expanding voice and data traffic, according to the Department of Information and Communications. —VDS, GMA News