Three third telco aspirants submitted offers to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on Wednesday morning.

The groups were the consortium of China Telecom and Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy’s Udenna Corp. and Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp., the LCS-TierOne Consortium backed by Ilocos politician Luis “Chavit” Singson and Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp.

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Also present at the NTC were officials from NOW Telecom and the consortium of South Korea’s KT Corp. and Pampanga-based businessman Converge ICT Solutions.

Both, however, did not submit offers on Wednesday.

In a statement, KT-Converge said they decided not to proceed with the bid after a “thorough and deliberately optimistic outlook.”

“Mainly, the team concluded that while the market and industry outlook was financially viable, the conditions imposed for participation render the venture commercially unviable,” it said.

“The NMP [new major player] is required to incur an inordinate amount of funds and carry out commitments at a pace that was not required of the current dominant service providers,” the consortium noted.

It added that it was “encouraged by the current aggressive objective of the government to establish a competitive environment and look forward to participating if another opportunity arises.”

The administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is seeking to select a new mobile player that would compete with PLDT and Globe. At stake in the selection process are a coveted set of 3G, 4G and potential 5G radio frequencies.

NTC officials earlier said they may name a provisional winner within the day. /muf

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