Five apply for Philippines’ new entrant auction

Five different companies have reportedly expressed an interest in bidding to become the Philippines’ third operator during next year’s planned new entrant spectrum auction.

Companies including Philippines TMT company Now Corporation and ISP Converge ICT Solutions have declared their interest in participating. The three other companies have not been named.

Now Corp secured a CMTS license in 2006, and plans to find a foreign partner for its bid to become the market’s third mobile operator, the report states.

Both Now Corp and Converge ICT Solutions offer broadband services to corporate clients, with the latter also offering home and SME broadband services.

Last month, the NBTC announced plans to hold the planned third entrant auctionin mid-2017.

Spectrum in the 700-MHz, 2500-MHz, 800-MHz and 3500-MHz bands, surrendered as a condition of the $1.5 billion acquisition of San Miguel Corp’s telecoms assets by incumbents Globe and PLDT, will be put on the block.

But any new entrant to the market will face an uphill battle disrupting the Globe-PLDT duopoly. The report cites Edgardo Cabarios, deputy commissioner of telecoms regulator NTC, as stating that a thrid entrant should invest at least 30 billion pesos ($604.1 million) over the first two years of operation on a nationwide rollout.