The Philippines’ Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) outlined a new policy on infrastructure sharing to a group of potential stakeholders including operators, tower companies and other private groups, and opened a public consultation on the draft rules.

Ramon Jacinto, presidential adviser on economic affairs and ICT (pictured, centre), said: “We have carefully reviewed the policies to see what will benefit the Philippine setting given our local scenarios.”

In addition to naming a third operator, the common tower and pole sharing policy had been identified by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte as another step to providing faster and more affordable telecoms services in the country, DICT said in a statement.

Eliseo Rio, DICT’s acting secretary (pictured, right), said it is important to gather the input and support of operators and tower companies on the initiative: “We will gel these (comments and suggestions) altogether and come up with a policy that is now being required by the president”.

Once finalised, DICT will instruct the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to implement the policies by drafting the rules and regulations.

The deadline for submitting comments on the infrastructure sharing plan is 5 October.