LISTED Transpacific Broadband Group International, Inc. (TBGI) said it is working with a China state-owned firm for the roll out of common towers for mobile network operators in the country.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange Thursday, TBGI said it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chinese company ZPI-SOE to assist it in “pre-site acquisition to the post-construction process” of the common tower aspect of the government’s third telco project.

“The MoU entails the formulation of the Matrix of Responsibilities, Project Schedule, Contract Arrangement and Milestones of the project,” it said.

No details on ZPI-SOE were available. The company is not among the 23 firms that earlier signed an MoU with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on the rollout of common towers.

Third telecommunications player Mislatel consortium also noted it is not in talks with TBGI for the provision of common towers for its rollout. “They were not among the companies that submitted a proposal,” Mislatel Spokesperson Adel A. Tamano told BusinessWorld.

But in its disclosure, TBGI said it has submitted an initial list of 3,000 sites that may be used for common towers located in private schools in its existing client base. These schools, TBGI said, are customers availing its broadband services.

The agreement with the Chinese firm is expected to help the listed firm improve its top line by P1 billion in the next five years.

“Each tower infrastructure is estimated to cost $100,000 per site, while the site acquisition is budgeted from $7,000 to $8,000 per site,” it said. — Denise A. Valdez

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