Although not as pronounced as Smart and Globe, Digitel, which broke the duopoly and became the third industry player, is likewise looking to rollout 3G services within the year.

'We are currently finalizing our technical plans for the 3G rollout. We're almost done conducting trials for our 3G offering which we hope to offer anytime within the year. We've also been upgrading our base stations and improving our network capacity,' William Pamintuan, Digitel senior vice president, said in an interview.

He added Digitel is in the process of negotiating interconnection and roaming agreements with other service providers, including co-location of network facilities in order to offer its services nationwide.

Digitel is investing around $200 million to upgrade its network from 2.5G to 3G, Pamintuan added. 'We are also currently eyeing probable 3G infrastructure providers.'