Villar firm seeks franchise for telco plan

The Villar family behind property giant Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. is moving closer toward its goal of providing nationwide telecommunications services, where it hopes to join a growing number of players in the fixed-line internet space—challenging the dominance of PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom.

The clan’s Streamtech Systems Technologies Inc. is waiting for lawmakers to grant it a congressional franchise. It recently passed the House of Representatives and the process is now pending with the Senate, Streamtech owner Paolo Villar said last week.

Villar, also the CEO of Vista Land, said the budding telco was currently providing services in limited areas.

“I want to do it everywhere in the Philippines,” he said. “With a national license, I can roll out everywhere.”

Villar said the initial focus was fixed-line broadband, given easy access to a market Vista Land holds: Over 300,000 homes spread over 132 cities and municipalities in the Philippines.

“If you buy a house [from Vista Land], what we want is for you to have the option for high-speed internet,” he said, adding that other customers would be eventually targeted.

The opportunity in the fixed-line space is significant. The World Bank estimated that only 5.5 percent of Filipinos had a fixed broadband subscription in 2016.

PLDT and Globe are likewise allocating billions of pesos to lay down new fiber networks to link homes and businesses with high-speed internet.

Streamtech, which would have a different trade name once launched nationwide, will initially rely on existing telco backbones such as those controlled by PLDT and Globe to provide “last mile” connections to its residential communities, Villar said.