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Smart accelerates tower deployment after permits are released
Ian Nicolas Cigaral (Philstar.com) – September 15, 2020 – 7:22 pm
MANILA, Philippines – After coronavirus lockdowns crippled network expansion plans, Smart Communications Inc. said Tuesday that it is now accelerating the deployment of its tower across the country, thanks to the government’s move to reduce the excessive bureaucracy.
In a statement Tuesday, PLDT Inc., Smart’s parent company, said 34 permits required for the construction of mobile phone towers were recently issued by local government units.
Since President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the LGUs to expedite the processing of applications from telecommunications companies in August, Smart said it has obtained a total of 211 construction and pre-construction permits in Metro Manila and other provinces around the country. Once completed, the company hopes to start 5G connections in other parts of the country.
“The government’s initiative to make it easier for us to build more towers faster will go a long way in terms of improving coverage,” said Alfredo Panlilio, president and CEO of the company.
In his penultimate state of the nation address, Duterte criticized headlines Globe Telecom Inc. and PLDT for their alleged poor service and threatened to confiscate their assets if they don’t get in shape. Later, the firebrand leader redirected his ire towards the LGUs after discovering that they had been slow to process permit applications from telecommunications companies.
From the previous average of 241 days, the Department of the Interior and Local Government reduced processing time to an average of 16 days. To do this, some licenses are no longer required.
The reform immediately produced satisfactory results. Last week, Globe said it obtained 190 permits of 85 LGUs in August, of which 37 were granted “in record time.”
The third incoming player, Dito Telecommunity, for its part, said it is on track to meet its goal of finishing 1,300 cell sites, the number of towers needed to meet regulatory requirements, by October this year. But Dito was also forced to delay its technical launch supposedly held in early July for another six months after failing to build the required number of cell sites.
For PLDT, the less bureaucratic restrictions and the reduction of coronavirus lockdowns mean that it can now catch up on its investment plans. In addition to building around 1,000 to 1,500 towers a year, Panlilio said that Smart also needs to strengthen its other telecommunications infrastructure to expand its coverage. To do that, its parent PLDT raised its target capital expenditures back to about P70 billion for this year.
“The towers are just one element in PLDT’s mobile network infrastructure, and we have both fixed and mobile infrastructures,” said Panlilio.
“We have about 10,000 macro and micro cells and more than 20,000 LTE base stations spread across the country. Apart from the towers, we need an extensive fiber optic network and we currently have at least 360,000 kilometers of fiber optic network,” he added.
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