Globe and PLDT still need to build own cell towers in 2020

Telco giants Globe Telecom Inc. and PLDT Inc. must continue investing heavily in building cell sites or communication towers next year as the government’s proposed common tower scheme has not yet materialized.

The government’s common tower policy seeks to free telecom firms from costly capital expenditures in building communications towers.

“From a planning perspective, we will do it as if we are building everything ourselves and we will continue to do so,” Globe chief technology officer Gil Genio said in a press briefing in Taguig City on Thursday.

“Thus far there's no real tower that has been set up for multi-tenant use ... at the moment, it has not happened yet and certainly for 2020 we are not pinning our hopes,” Genio said.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology targets to roll out at least 50,000 common towers across the country in the next seven to ten years. It recently announced plans to accelerate the construction of 2,500 common towers in government properties.

In a separate press briefing in Makati City, PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan said a “significant portion” of the telco’s capital expenditure next year will be on building its own cell sites.

“Without being definitive about it, it’s a significant portion of the capex,” Pangilinan said. —VDS, GMA News