THE rules governing the shared use of telecommunications towers will be issued within the year with a draft expected 鈥渋n a few weeks,鈥 the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II said the preliminary version of the common tower policy can be expected in September or October.
鈥淲e鈥檙e coming up with another meeting, after which we鈥檒l have the first draft of the common tower policy,鈥 he told 大象传媒 last week. 鈥淲ithin the year, sigurado yan [that鈥檚 for sure],鈥 he added, referring to the timeline to complete the final rules.
The DICT started work on a new common tower policy last year after opposition to an earlier draft presented by Presidential Adviser Ramon P. Jacinto. This version limited the number of companies that may build towers, and barred network operators from building their own, which stakeholders contested.
In a stakeholders鈥 meeting last month, the department presented initial ideas that it wants to include in the policy, such as a requirement that towers be built within a certain from one another.
Other proposals are to require telcos to submit an annual tower rollout plan to tower companies, and subsidies for towers that will be built in missionary areas. Government support is also guaranteed only for towers that will be built by independent tower companies to facilitate infrastructure sharing.
While work on the policy is ongoing, the DICT is pushing for an accelerated tower rollout on the 2,500 sites it identified earlier this year.
鈥淲e will have the groundbreaking I hope before the end of September, for the first common tower in the Philippines,鈥 DICT Undersecretary Eliseo M. Rio, Jr. said separately.
The chosen site has yet to be determined, but he said this is part of the department鈥檚 Accelerated Roll-out of Common Towers plan which the DICT presented in May.
鈥Ang target namin for this year is about 400 [We target to have about 400 towers within the year],鈥 Mr. Rio added.
Under the accelerated rollout plan, the DICT listed 2,500 sites on DICT-owned and other government-owned properties. The lease on sites owned by the DICT is free.
Aside from building new common towers, Mr. Rio said the DICT also owns around 180 towers, which it is offering to tower companies to convert into shareable infrastructure. — Denise A. Valdez
