China Telecom is the Philippines’ third telco player

China Telecom has been chosen to enter the Philippine telecommunications landscape as the third player to Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told GMA News.

In the said interview for GMA News’ DZBB radio news arm, Andanar mentioned that this information was relayed by Acting Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Eliseo Rio during the last Cabinet meeting.

“‘Yung huling Cabinet meeting which was ‘yung last week lang, ay ni-report ni Acting Secretary… na nakapili na ang Chinese government ng company sa China na mag-iinvest sa telco dito sa bansa natin. Ito ay ang kompanyang China Telecom. Ang China Telecom ay ang pinakamalaking telecommunications company sa China. Marami kasi ‘yun, maraming telecommunications company ‘yan eh,” he added.

In order for the company to enter the local landscape, they may be forced to partner with a Philippine company as mandated for public utility companies to only have 40% foreign ownership in the 1987 constitution. “Ang problema lang kasi dito sa bansa natin, if you are a foreign investor, you cannot go beyond 40 percent [ownership]. Eh papaano ‘yun, diba so siyempre kailangan maghanap ng partner dito sa Pilipinas,” Andanar said.

China Telecom boasts of a 245-million subscriber base in China as of October 2017 and is ranked 142nd in Forbes’ Global 2000 list this year.

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18 Comments

Jasper Laguitao · 8 years ago

mas mabilis nako makaka skype with my boyfriend sa wakas. please ASAP na to

will · 8 years ago

china owns the world

anonymouse · 8 years ago

Imagine, a foreign company having access to millions of Filipino data everyday, and is as if DICT has the resource to “police” the logs of this telecom. It’s one thing to sell cheap items from China, but to get a hold of public data? Hmm now that’s interesting. Hoping that the Gov’t data is running on its own and secure network.

Gerald · 8 years ago

ngayon ka pa natakot, ung globe nga Singaporean company ang isa sa largest investor nila.
si PLDT/Smart alam naman natin lahat na hawak un ng Indonesian company.

salvi · 8 years ago

Lagot ang duopoly. Mabilis ang China magtrabaho lalo na kapag maglatag sila ng submarine cable, it only takes 15 days haha.. pero dumedepende sa partner na pinoy. Ayaw ng chinese yung babagal bagalan.

K L · 8 years ago

Go lang basta mabilis at mura… sana ASAP maramdaman na to.

loidch · 8 years ago

Whatever it is, sana they partner with the smb group to give it credibility. May backdoor listing pa naman yung mga bourses sa pse

Jude · 8 years ago

seryoso? Papasukin na tayo ng mga chinese? Mahihirapan yan makahanap ng partner. it’s a huge investment

Freeje · 8 years ago

Not really the biggest. They used to be in terms of landline phones but almost everyone has shifted to mobile phone use. Number one is China Mobile, second is China Unicom and third is China Telecom.