Win or lose, Singson-led consortium will pursue telco expansion

By Denise A. Valdez, Reporter
WHATEVER the result of the government’s bidding for a new major telco player will be, the consortium led by former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” C. Singson said it will still pursue the expansion of its business, which involves the deployment of portable Wi-Fi hotspots connected to a satellite.
Mr. Singson, whose LCS Group of Companies partnered with TierOne Communications International, Inc., said they are only joining the government bidding to expedite the implementation of their expansion plans.
“Before there was an announcement of bidding, we were already doing telco. I have a new company, Gracia Telecoms, and my partner is doing (telco) also in Mindanao, TierOne… Wala naman sa amin yang bid eh. Pero noong in-announce, might as well bid. Mas mabilis ang trabaho namin [We don’t need the bidding. But when it was announced, we thought we might as well bid. It would make our jobs easier],” he said in an interview on Tuesday.
While the consortium’s ultimate goal is to win the third telco bidding scheduled today, Mr. Singson is confident they can still become the fourth or fifth telco should they fail to win the award.
“Tuloy tuloy kami, pero hindi namin sinasabi yang matatalo kami. We are there to win. Kasi even in other countries, meron namang fourth telco, fifth telco. Kaya tuloy tuloy kami [We will keep going, but we wouldn’t say we will lose. We are there to win. But even in other countries, there are fourth telco, fifth telco, so we will keep pushing],” he said.
What sets LCS-TierOne apart from other third telco aspirants is its planned use of a high throughput satellite to provide internet coverage all over the country.
“This is the only way — satellite. Because we are doing cable, everyone is doing cable. They are only serving the developed areas, but it will take forever because we have 7,000 islands. How can we service (everyone)? The only way to service everybody right away is through satellite. So we’ll be nationwide right away,” Mr. Singson said.
LCS-TierOne signed an agreement to buy equity in broadband satellite operator Kacific Broadband Satellites last month, which will allow the consortium to access bandwidth through its pop-up cell sites.
The pop-up cell sites named Telco-in-a-Box are cargo containers modified and installed with solar panels, an antenna and a radio disk to emit internet signal through the broadband satellite with speeds of up to 1.3 Gigabits per second (Gbps) within a 500-meter radius.
Mr. Singson said they plan to start within the year the initial distribution of 20,000 Telco-in-a-Box units in barangays, especially in rural areas, to offer services to unserved and underserved communities.
For the broadband satellite, he said Boeing Company is currently building the satellite which will be launched by August or September 2019. Satellite operator Kacific, which LCS-TierOne signed a deal with, said in its website it has contracted SpaceX for the launch of the Kacific-1 satellite on a Falcon-9 rocket next year.
“Kacific offers right now long-term bandwidth lease agreements to local wholesale customers wanting to secure for its affordable satellite broadband for their home market,” it said.
LCS-TierOne is one of nine local and foreign companies expected to submit their third telco bids to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) today. The winner will be awarded a certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) valid for 15 years or the length of the franchise of a bidder, whichever is shorter; and radio frequency bands of 700 megahertz (MHz), 2100 MHz, 2000 MHz, 2.5 gigahertz (GHz), 3.3 GHz and 3.5 GHz.
The government’s bidding aims to find a third telco that will challenge the duopoly of Globe Telecom, Inc. and PLDT, Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.