Philippines telecom companies promise rapid 3G rollout

26.01.2006
After being assigned respective frequencies by the Philippines National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), companies that were granted five-year licenses to operate third-generation or 3G wireless services are now in a race to deploy what is touted as the next wave in mobile communications.

3G has been hyped as the next generation in wireless services, enabling faster transmission of data and therefore allowing telcos to offer rich multimedia services such as video conferencing, audio and video streaming, and mobile Internet.

While there is no doubt that the technology to make all this happen is already in place, the four players -- Smart Communications Inc., Globe Telecoms Inc., Digital Telecommunications Inc., and newcomer Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprise Inc. (CURE) -- are quick to acknowledge issues such as handset availability and content as they begin competing for 3G subscribers.

Some of these players have also hinted at how they intend to deploy 3G within the next two to three years.

Smart, which currently has the largest mobile subscriber base at more than 20 million, was awarded the largest radio frequency bandwidth of 15MHz x 2 and had the first crack at choosing preferred frequency bands after scoring the highest among the four players in NTC's grading system.

It chose the 1920-1935MHz/2110-2125MHz-frequency spectrum (or channels 1, 2, and 3). 'We will maximize the use of this radio frequency spectrum we have selected in order to deliver the optimum quality of 3G services to our customers,' said Rolando Pe'a, Smart's network services division chief, in an issued statement.