After a long wait, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has name the third telco player on a provisional basis. The third telco player named Wednesday was Mislatel a consortium between Udenna group, Chelsea Logistics and one of China’s telco provider, China Telecom.

During the bidding process many have expressed their interest to become the third telco player for the Philippines, however, some have backed out close to the final process. Only three remained to be in the running, Mislatel, PT&T and Tier1 which is a company backed by former Ilocos Sur Governor Luis “Chavit” Singson.

Out of the 7 who expressed their interest only three submitted their documents for the final process of evaluation. However, PT&T and Tier1 were disqualified for submitting incomplete documents.

What Mislatel Promised

According to DICT, Mislatel’s bid is above and beyond the minimum required during the bidding. The company promised a population coverage of 37% during its first year of operation and rising to 84% by the 5th year. This is above the required 50% coverage by year 5.

Mislatel also bids that they will deliver an annual average internet speed in Mbps of about 27Mbps during their first year and up to 55Mbps during its 5th year which is again way above the minimum required of 5mbps by 5th year.

Finally, Mislatel also promised to shell out P150 billion of cumulative capital and operational expenditure during its first year and up to P257 Billion in its 5th year of operation.

According to DICT if Mislatel failed to deliver such commitments the P14 billion performance bond will be forfeited. The DICT also added that the status of Mislatel as the third telco player in the Philippines is provisional pending the full evaluation of their documents. In addition, Tier1 and PT&T can still appeal and DICT hopes that they will be able to give a final decision on such appeals in a month’s time.