Cell tower firms seen moving faster after slow start

Industry giant Globe Telecom sees independent cell tower companies speeding up construction activities after a slow start.

A government-endorsed solution to decongesting the country’s mobile networks, tower firms faced early delays in starting operations, Globe chief financial officer Rosemarie Maniego-Eala said during a briefing last week.

The crafting of regulations also took time as the Department of Information and Communications Technology issued the guidelines on May 29 last year.

“The tower companies are kinda slow off the blocks and they have actually admitted that building an organization and starting operations in the Philippines needed many steps,” she said.

The DICT is pushing for the construction of independent cell towers, meaning these will be built and managed by third-party companies and can be leased by several telecommunications providers.

Doing so will remove site redundancy, making the rollout more efficient. And since telcos will pay a lease instead of building their own towers, cost savings could potentially be passed on to subscribers.

Eala said Globe had signed “binding” agreements with American Tower, Edotco, CREI Philippines and Phil-Tower. Of those, Edotco and American Tower have erected less than 50 structures.

She explained this was a “big improvement” over the previous quarter when just one cell tower was built.

He said Globe would continue building its own cell towers while independent tower firms were ramping up operations. INQ