Globe forms ‘tower’ holding firm

Globe Telecom is moving forward with a plan to sell its cell tower assets as the government finalizes a telco infrastructure sharing initiative ahead of the entry of a new major player.

Globe announced it was in the process of incorporating a tower holding company, which would be its vehicle to “operationalize the divestment of all or part of its tower assets through a separate company.”

This is in sync with the administration’s common tower policy, led by Ramon “RJ” Jacinto, who advises President Duterte on economic affairs and ICT.

The common tower policy guidelines were released last week.

The policy paves the way for the government to accredit at least two independent tower companies by early 2019. The two firms will be expected to build about 50,000 sites for $4 billion over seven years and potentially acquire tower assets of Globe and PLDT Inc.

The policy seeks to encourage telcos to share infrastructure, since independent tower assets would be able to house the equipment of multiple companies. In exchange, the telcos will pay a rental fee.

This would also benefit a new telco, since it would lessen capital expenditures for new sites, the lack of which has been blamed by the incumbents as the reason for spotty mobile services.

They also blamed permitting bottlenecks for the slow rollout of towers. Globe and PLDT Inc. have about 16,000 towers combined, well below the roughly 70,000 towers that the government deemed adequate.