Mislatel confident of fulfilling 3rd telco obligations despite hurdles

Mislatel Consortium’s commitments as the country’s third major telecommunications player are “very aggressive numbers” but the group intends to meet its obligations, a company official said Tuesday.

“‘Yung sa rollout, very aggressive ‘yung numbers na binigay namin. Upper limit ‘yan, but doable,” Mislatel spokesperson Adel Tamano told reporters on the sidelines of a Senate hearing.

Composed of Mindanao Islamic Telephone Inc., Udenna Corp. and its subsidiary Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp., and state-owned China Telecommunications Corp. Ltd., Mislatel was declared by the National Telecommunications Commission as the new major player on November 19.

With a minimum speed of 27 megabits per second and capital and operating expenses of P150 billion. the consortium led by Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy vowed to achieve a nationwide coverage of 37.03 percent in its first year of operations.

In its fifth year of operations, it vowed to attain 84.01-percent nationwide coverage, 55 Mbps minimum speed, and capital and operation expenses of P27billion.

“What we want to assure the public is hindi namin kinuha itong mga numero out of thin air. Nag-aral po ‘yung partners namin na matagal, tinignan ‘yung market, gumawa ng business plan,” Tamano said.

Globe Telecom Inc. general counsel Froilan Castelo said the company took four years to cover 70 percent of the country’s major cities and national highways .

It takes eight to nine months on average and over 25 permits to deploy a single cell site in the Philippines, he said.

While the commitments were laudable, it would be hard for Mislatel meet them, retired Smart Communications Inc. executive Roger Quevedo said at the same hearing.

“Your ambition is laudable, but I don’t think there is the technology to put up one thousand cell sites in a year,” Quevedo noted.

In response, Tamano said Mislatel will need help from both public and private stakeholders.

“To be very honest, we need the help of others. We need government support in terms of coming up with policies that will speed the application process of towers,” Tamano noted.

He earlier said Mislatel is open to teaming up with incumbents Globe and PLDT Inc. for a tower sharing agreement. —VDS, GMA News