By Emmie V. Abadilla

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) can either shorten or extend the date for the bid award to the third telco player originally set on December, 2018, with 15 telcos signifying their interest to submit proposals, Acting DICT Secretary Eliseo Rio told reporters after yesterday’s public hearing on the selection rules at the Novotel Manila, Araneta Center, Quezon City.

So far, PT&T is ready to submit its proposal, President and CEO James G. Velasquez told reporters.

The company is one of the 6 local telcos which the DICT head named as interested to bid for the New Major Player (NMP) slot. The other local telcos are Converge, Transpacific Broadband Group, Easy Call and Tier One.

The foreign telcos include China Telecom, Korea Tel, LG, Vietnam Telecom, Telenor, AT&T and a Japanese firm.

The DICT is also adopting inputs from the Philippine Competition Commission to resolve issues defining a “participant” in the bidding to hasten the NMP selection process. If the NMP bidding attracts three or four participants, they will select a winner but will have to wait if just one participant materializes, according to Rio.

Significantly, some interested parties have been “doing their homework” as early as January this year, he pointed out.

However, “While they showed interest, we’re not sure if they will bid until they buy the bid document.”

Prospective participants can buy the bid documents from the National Telecommunications Commission for P1 million. The documents include a checklist of the submission requirements for the NMP, relevant forms and the electronic spreadsheet template.