Top telcos seen on collision course

The country’s top conglomerates are now on a collision course to secure the rights to use the third-generation, or 3G, wireless frequency that will be freed up later this year.

Ayala Corp., through subsidiary Globe Telecom, on Tuesday said it would bid for the 3G frequency that the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) group is set to give up this July.

Also interested in the frequency that allows a company to provide high-speed mobile broadband products is conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC), which operates several telcos that offer Internet services.

“Globe also believes that you need spectrum to serve our smartphone customers well in the near future, therefore Globe will be going to aggressively bid for the 3G spectrum,” Globe president Ernest Cu said Tuesday.

Securing the 3G frequency, which would be the second for the company, would give Globe the same number of mobile Internet frequencies as PLDT.

When asked whether the group would try to get its hands on the 3G spectrum, SMC president Ramon S. Ang said “Yes, we will.”

Winning the auction would put the SMC group in a position to seriously compete with entrenched players PLDT and Globe in the lucrative telco sector.