The Department of Information and Communications Technology said it is at the final stages of preparing the common tower policy for eventual affirmation and signing.
The infrastructure policy is a significant move that will enable market-driven forces not only to improve the telecommunication services but also to rationalize the telco industry to the point of yielding sizable economic benefits for the country.
The top-of-the-line impact on the country’s economy is the huge investments that the policy will raise. Gross income is estimated to reach $4 billion or about P200 billion.
These investments will also impact on the country’s employment prospects by way of thousands to be given jobs.
The construction of 50,000 towers is expected to benefit 10 million to 25 million workers, based on about 200 to 500 laborers per tower.
Acting DICT Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. said he is positive about the rationalization of the telcos which would accrue to the benefit of the millions of subscribers.
He said the savings of telcos from shared facilities would instead go to the improvement of services to be realized by the subscribers. The telcos will just lease the shared towers and what they spend on building and equipping towers should be reallocated to their capex budgets for the benefit of the subscribers.
Local government units are set to realize additional revenues from the expansion of the towercos situated in their areas. The increased income from the issuance of permits to various taxes applied will be for the good of the populace.
The DICT estimated that if the 19,000 towers built by the incumbent telco players already brought in substantial income, the targeted 50,000 towers to be built on different areas of the country would nearly triple the current take.
The building of 5,000 towers annually, over the next seven to 10 years to reach a total of 50,000 is expected to result in increased revenue for the LGUs in the medium to long term and the leveling up of the Philippines’ broadband communications services to be at par with those of other countries.
