Suresh Sidhu, CEO of edotco Group Sdn Bhd expressed optimism and equally encouraged by the DICT’s decision to open the market and accredit independent tower companies. “Our efforts in the Philippines are motivated by the clear opportunity to reshape the telecommunications landscape and as an independent tower company, we are in the right position to facilitate and manage these advancements,” Sidhu said.
Sidhu added that infrastructure sharing has proven to help mobile network operators focus on their core business and service offerings by alleviating the cost pressure of building and maintaining towers. “We have partnered with governments, regulators and operators in all the countries in which we are present and have a wealth of best practices that we hope to implement here. Our focus is not merely addressing digital gaps today but on building shareable infrastructure for the future, creating the right environment for the nation’s digital transformation aspirations,” he said.
The DICT targets to build at least 50,000 new common towers across the country in the next seven to ten years. The government agency also announced its plans recently to accelerate the building of 2,500 common towers in properties owned by government agencies. Telco stakeholders however are seeking for the immediate release of the long delayed Common Tower Policy.
Unlike in most countries, ICT infrastructure spend in the Philippines has been left entirely to the private sector. This brought about huge gaps in cell site and wired broadband builds all over the country. For instance, Vietnam has 90,000 cellular towers compared to the Philippines’ 17,850 cell sites while recent data from TowerXchange showed that even Pakistan has 34,300 while Bangladesh has 30,000 cellular towers.
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