Philippines-based Alliance Towers reduced the number of towers it expects to deploy in 2022 by 300, after Covid-19 (coronavirus) restrictions hampered its target to build 500 sites for the three mobile operators in the country, BusinessWorld reported.

Alliance Towers chairman and CEO Sherwin Hing told the newspaper it earmarked PHP40 billion ($768.2 million) in capex for the next ten years, with 200 towers now expected to roll out in 2022.

BusinessMirror reported Hing as saying Alliance Towers is considering forming joint ventures with overseas companies to raise capital.

Alliance Towers last week signed a deal with Globe Telecom to build towers in Visayas and Mindanao, in the south of the country.

In 2018, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) outlined a new policy on infrastructure sharing, which was later backed by PLDT.

To improve its mobile infrastructure and boost data rates, DICT estimated the country required 50,000 additional towers. It had around 16,000 in early 2019.