Common tower provider Phil-Tower Consortium has announced the completion of their 200th cell site, a major milestone for the industry as the last 100 sites were completed in just over a month.
The company said a large number of the towers are co-location sites hosting equipment of multiple mobile operators, making the fast roll-out all the more significant.
The government’s new Common Tower Policy allows passive infrastructure like cell site towers to host different operators, thus minimizing their capital expenditure and making the roll-out of their networks and services faster. In addition, shared infrastructure will minimize the unsightly clutter of towers that currently dominate the country’s landscape, the company said.
“PhilTower is proud to announce the 200 cell site milestone and we look forward to rolling out several hundreds more in the coming months. We remain committed to the government’s vision of rolling out a world-class digital infrastructure nationwide in the most efficient and cost-effective manner,” PhilTower president Devid Gubiani said in a statement.
Peter Wong, PhilTower country director, added: “We look forward to hosting mobile operators Smart, Globe, and Dito on our sites, and even other broadband providers who need to build their networks faster and more economically. Now, expanding your coverage need not be capital intensive.”
PhilTower said it has built towers across North and South Luzon, and more notably in the NCR and Rizal regions. These tower solutions range from 30 to 50-meter ground-based towers, rooftop solutions, as well as a number of street furniture micro-cell poles/smart poles which is the preferred option in villages and subdivisions as they blend well with the surroundings and require a small footprint compared to taller structures.
PhilTower said it has started to partner with various real estate developers to implement this solution and provide value to their developments while fulfilling the connectivity needs of their residents.
Meanwhile, PLDT announced that its subsidiaries Smart Communications and Digitel have completed the sale of its 3,012 telecom towers and receiving the corresponding cash consideration of approximately P39.2 billion.
“As the largest ever acquisition of assets in the Philippines by international investors, this investment by international tower operators represents a strong endorsement of the country’s recovery from the pandemic and its long-term growth prospects. This pioneer undertaking also supports the Philippine Department of Information and Communications Technology’s goal of improving tower density which will lead to significant efficiencies and improved connectivity across the Philippines,” PLDT said in a statement.
PLDT said it foresees the completion of the transaction in the next few months as the transaction is staggered based on number of towers being transferred, with final closing expected by the fourth quarter of 2022.
