Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has offered China an opportunity to create a third telecommunication provider in the country, his spokesman said yesterday, using rapidly-warming ties with Beijing to break a duopoly that consumers blame for poor services.
Duterte, who has courted Beijing while loosening his nation’s alliance with the United States, made the offer in a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Manila earlier this month, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.
“President Duterte offered to the People’s Republic of China the privilege to operate the third telecoms carrier in the country,” Roque told reporters.
This announcement comes a week after a joint project between the Philippine government and Facebook, that would connect the country directly to the United States’ internet hubs through an undersea cable network, was revealed. Called the “Luzon Bypass Infrastructure,” the hubs then would connect to a cable station on the east coast of Luzon island, then to another station 250 kilometers away on the west coast of Luzon.
Facebook would be shelling out an undisclosed amount to help build the infrastructure, which according to Department of Information and Communications Technology officer-in-charge Eliseo Rio, would add a bandwidth of two million megabytes per second (Mbps) to the country. He said this is roughly equivalent to the capacity of PLDT and Globe combined.
He said they have not yet designated the Chinese company that would enter the Philippine market.
But Roque added that this would be an integral step to ending the “duopoly” of Globe and PLDT.
Consumers have complained that the dominance of these two companies has left the Philippines lagging behind its neighbors in telecoms services.
Asked why Duterte had singled out China to enter the local telecom market, Roque replied: “the president said that China has the capital and the technology to provide efficient telecom service.”
Roque also said the these Chinese companies also have large numbers of subscribers, proving their capabilities.
“Consider also the proximity and the fact that we want to avail of as much economic advantage that we could arising from the renewed friendly ties with China,” he added.
A US$329 million national broadband contract with Chinese telecom giant ZTE was cancelled in 2007 after a bribery scandal that severely embarrassed then-president Gloria Arroyo.
In contrast to his predecessors, Duterte has pursued closer economic, political and defense ties with China since he was elected last year, even setting aside Manila’s territorial dispute with Beijing over large parts of the South China Sea.
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