Malacañang has approved yesterday a 25-year franchise extension of NOW Telecom, a potential third telco player in the Philippines.
Mel Velasco Velarde, CEO of NOW Corp, posted last Thursday on Facebook the photos of documents showing the approved company’s franchise up to the year 2043.
With the said law, NOW TELECOM, as a telecommunications company, now has privileges similar to those granted to existing dominant players in the industry – NOW Telecom
Under the signed agreement is the Republic Act No. 7301 stating that:
REPUBLIC ACT NO. 7301 – AN ACT GRANTING SATELLITE PAGING SYSTEMS PHILIPPINES, INC., A FRANCHISE TO CONSTRUCT, ESTABLISH, OPERATE AND MAINTAIN RADIO PAGING SYSTEMS AND TRUNKED RADIO SYSTEMS WITHIN THE PHILIPPINES FOR A PERIOD OF TWENTY-FIVE (25) YEARS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology expects to announce the third telco player by the first half of May.
If “FOR OTHER PURPOSES” means being a possible third Telco player then that is fine. I don’t think that will happen NOW. It might take a foreign partner for the company to do it as I don’t think that have the capability to do it on their own.