MANILA – The Department of Information and Communications Technology could name the third major telecommunications player next month.
Barring legal impediments, the agency can identify the new player by Nov. 7 and the company could have its first subscriber by 2019, DICT secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. told a Senate hearing Monday.
“We are on track in fulfilling President (Rodrigo) Duterte’s desired timeline, which is to have an NMP (new major player) by November of this year,” Rio said before the committee on public services.
“In the first year of their commitment period, that is where they are going to roll out doon sa kanilang commitment,” he added. “But in that rollout, give or take mga six months or nine months, they could have their first subscribers.”
They hope the case NOW Telecom filed at the Manila Regional Trial Court against the DICT and the National Telecommunications Commission will not affect their timeline.
“In fact we are 17 days away in fulfilling it but because of the act of one contender, we are trying our best to answer all the queries that (were) brought to the court so that these deadlines will not be derailed,” Rio said.
“The timeline indicated in the slide will be intact. And on Nov. 7, we will have a provisional new major player, barring any decision from the court,” he added.
NOW Telecom, in its case, said the DICT and the NTC should remove certain provisions in the terms of reference in choosing the third telecommunications provider in the country.
The court denied the request of NOW Telecom for a temporary restraining order after the company failed to prove that its rights were violated and there was any urgency to issue such order.
Eight companies bought bid documents worth P1 million, three of which are foreign telecom operators. The bidders were required to be congressional franchise holders./PN
