China Energy Engineering Corp. on Friday said it plans to spend $4.4 billion to build 50,000 common cellular towers nationwide.
“We have no problem in building these 50,000 towers, we will deploy it based on the demand of the telcos,” Huang Fei, vice president of CEEC, said.
“In China, we have experience in construction and maintaining 100,000 towers,” he added.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology earlier signed separate memorandum of understandings with SOC Infrastructures Inc. and Singapore’s ISON ECP Tower Pte. Ltd., Nigeria’s IHS Towers and Malaysia’s Edotco Group for the construction of cellular towers nationwide.
The DICT will support the five companies in facilitating permits, right of way, and provide other government support for infrastructure once they secure a contract with any of the telco operators.
The development came at the heels of the DICT opting for a market-driven approach in accelerating the build-up of more cell sites.
Acting DICT Secretary Eliseo Rio said the Philippines, with less than 20,000 towers, has the smallest number of towers considering its land area and population compared with other countries in the neighboring region.
The agency said the maximum rollout of one tower company is 25,000 for a seven-year period. Each tower company is projected to invest $2 billion.
The DICT said the Philippines needs at least around 50,000 cellular towers to be able to have the proper coverage and provide adequate service to the Filipino consumers.