3G Licenses Awarded in The Philippines

The Philippines telecoms regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is understood to have awarded four 3G licenses to local companies. Existing GSM operators, Smart, Digitel and Globe have been awarded a license along with new entrant, Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprises (Cure). The NTC still has a fifth 3G licence that is expected to be awarded shorty - no details have been given so far to explain the delay.

Smart says that it has already started to deploy its 3G network.

"We have been testing a number of 3G cell sites and can now service customers on a trial basis in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. What's more, we have already ordered the network facilities needed to establish nationwide 3G coverage at the shortest possible time," Smart president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno said. "We will repeat the rapid roll-out that we accomplished in deploying first our analog and then our GSM network infrastructures. We are in 3G for real."

Smart says that among the companies that applied for a 3G license, it ranked highest, garnering a perfect score of 30 based on the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) 30-point grading system designed to gauge the capability of aspiring telco operators to massively and effectively provide 3G services.

As a result, Smart has been assigned the largest radio frequency allocation - 15 MHz compared to 10 MHz for the other operators. Moreover, it now has the choice of the best frequency spectrum.

The grading system used, as detailed in section 3.6 of NTC's 3G ruling, measures the capability of prospective operators to: massively roll-out 3G network in at least 80% of the country's towns and cities in the next five years; interconnect with other 3G and mobile operators; and share network and facilities with other providers in areas where demand limits service provision to just one operator."

Posted to the site on 2nd January 2006