Third Telco Delayed Until July

Written by imoney

The Department of Information and Communications (DICT) has announced on Thursday (March 20) that the selection of the country’s third major telecommunications company may have to wait until July. The DICT officer-in-charge Eliseo Rio said the deadline for the submission of bids for the third telco (which had already been moved to May 24) may have to be moved again to either end of June or early July.

The reason for the delay is because DICT is still finalizing the terms of reference (TOR) for the selection of the new telco player. According to Rio, they want to make sure that it will be more complete and comprehensive than the first draft, to make it attractive enough to contenders for the Third Telco Player but at the same time not anti-competitive to the incumbent telcos.  He has assured that the announcement will be done before the State of the Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte on July 23.

The TOR was originally set for publication mid march, but it is now expected to be published after the Holy Week holidays (around the first week of April).

[source]