Globe says more players won’t solve mobile network hurdles

The high cost of network and difficult deployment are the real industry barriers which will not likely be solved by adding more players in the telecommunications industry, Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu said.

Speaking before a multi-stakeholders forum that included local government representatives, customers and the media, Cu took to task industry critics who have asserted that the country needs more industry players to improve telco services.

“I have said it time and again, Globe is ready and willing to compete with any player old or new. However, any new player who wants to come in should build incremental infrastructure in order to improve telco services in the country.

“The new player should not sit idly by waiting for existing operators to just open up and use whatever infrastructure is available because doing so will not help solve existing industry challenges,” he said.

Cu added current industry barriers were not put up by existing telco players but a combination of high network spending which runs in multi-billion dollar investments due to lack of infrastructure and difficulties in network deployment due to bureaucratic red tape that further increases cost of operations.

“This industry is very difficult to penetrate because the barriers to entry are very expensive to overcome and because deployment of networks are very challenging due to local government issues,” said Cu.

Cu cited the case of SMC, which early this year was on the verge of launching a telco business.

However, following the sellout of SMC’s telco assets in late May, it was found that its existing telco infrastructure was barely adequate.

“How can this supposed player compete when it cannot deploy a network? When we found San Miguel, which was threatening to launch a network, it only had 230 cell sites. “