President Rodrigo Roa Duterte issues the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) to the Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company Inc. (Mislatel) through its Chairman Dennis Uy during a ceremony at the Malacañan Palace on July 8, 2019. Also in the photo are National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba and Information and Communications Technology Secretary Gregorio Honasan II. ALFRED FRIAS/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — After receiving its license to operate, the Mislatel Consortium is expected to deliver its commitment of 37 percent national coverage with an average speed of 27 megabytes per second (mbps) in its first year of operation, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said Tuesday.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier awarded to Mislatel its certificate of public convenience and necessity issuance (CPCN).
READ: 3rd telco Mislatel gets permit to operate
“With the issuance of the CPCN, the NTC gave Mislatel the license to operate the frequency bands 700 megahertz (MHz), 2100 MHz, 2000 MHz, 2.5 gigahertz (GHz), 3.3 GHz and 3.5 GHz,” the NTC said in a press release.
“Mislatel will roll-out under the name Dito Telecommunity to deliver its commitment of 37.03% national coverage with an average speed of 27 Mbps on its first year of operations,” it added.
In its fifth year of operation, NTC said Mislatel is expected to cover 84.01 percent of the country with an average speed of 55 mbps.
The NTC said Mislatel’s commitments were secured by a performance bond of about P25.7 billion.
Mislatel also fulfilled President Rodrigo Duterte’s promise of a new major player in the telco industry, the NTC added.
“President Duterte’s third telco initiative coupled with the implementation of the mandatory unlocking of phones, the mobile number portability act, the implementation of the Common Tower Policy, the removal of text and call interconnection charges, and the implementation of the National Broadband Plan will greatly benefit the Filipino consumer,” NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba said in his speech during the ceremony.
He added that such reforms also fulfills the President’s promise to improve the third telco’s “odds of success in an industry that has long been dominated by a well-entrenched duopoly” to ensure that its entry will give the best possible services at reasonable prices. (Editor: Mike U. Frialde)