By Genalyn Kabiling

China is not the only one keen on becoming the third giant player in the local telecommunications industry.

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp (PT&T) and its South Korean partner are also interested to join the telco sector in the country.

The latest business interest was relayed by acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. of the Department of Information and Communications Technology to President Duterte during a Cabinet meeting in Malacañang last Monday.

“Nabanggit nga ng DICT Acting Secretary Rio na dalawa ang so far interested na maging third player sa telecommunications industry. Una, iyong China Telecom, plus iyong consortium na hindi pa ho nababanggit; at pangalawa pong nasa listahan ay iyong grupong PT&T ay iyong kanilang partner na Korean telecom company [DICT acting Secretary Rio mentioned two companies interested so far to become the third player in the telecommunications industry — first, China Telecom and the consortium that has yet to be announced and second in the list is the PT&T group and its partner a Korean telecom company],” Andanar said in a radio interview last Tuesday.

The President earlier invited China to become the third telco player to foster competition in the market currently dominated by two large companies. Beijing has reportedly chosen China Telecom to set up a telecom provider in the Philippines.

Duterte has already ordered concerned agencies to swiftly approve applications and licenses to allow the third telco player to begin operations in the first quarter of 2018.

The Palace recently said the government is open to the entry of other companies to the local telco industry if China backs out from a planned venture. China must still comply with the country’s constitutional provision limiting foreign ownership of a telecom firm to 40 percent.

Meantime, Andanar said the government hopes the operations of a third telco player could start in the next few months.”Talagang inaapura po iyan ng DICT para maging competitive po ang ating telecoms industry [DICT is really rushing it to make the telecoms industry more competitive],” he said.

With the President’s decision to open the telco industry to other players, Andanar said PLDT Inc and Globe Telecom Inc. have set aside huge amounts to further improve their services. He claimed that PLDT has committed P58 billion while Globe offered P47 billion in additional investments.

“We can really see that even just the announcement itself ay nahikayat po iyong dalawang telco giants na ito na mag-invest ng pera para pagandahin pa iyong kanilang serbisyo [the two giant telcos were encouraged to invest money to improve their services] so, that in itself is already a victory for the Filipino people,” he said.