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President Duterte has long called for a new player to reinvigorate the country’s telecoms sector and deliver 5G services sooner
Now Telecom has confirmed that it intends to launch 5G services in the Philippines, in an attempt to break up the country’s current telecoms duopoly of Globe Telecom and PLDT.
The move would also be a snub to newly formed Mislatel, which was specifically formed to speed up the country’s race for 5G, but has since confirmed that it will not be able to launch services until 2021.
“The Decentralized Gigabit Era is upon us now. 5G will allow high wireless bandwidth in low latency scenarios, allowing for further complex technologies to exist. 5G is necessary for the Internet of Things to thrive. With cloud computing, you can now decentralize the business of telecommunications,” Now Telecom’s president, Rodolfo P. Pantoja, told journalists from Business World.
Pantoja has significant regional experience in launching next generation networks, and was chief executive of Indonesia’s PT Smartfren Telecom when it launched its 4G and LTE networks.
Now Telecom has not yet specified a date for when it will launch 5G services in the country, but both Globe Telecom and PLDT have said that they will launch commercial 5G mobile network services by the middle of 2020.
Also in the news:
Filipino govt wants MoU with telcos to help deploy 50,000 towers
The Philippines delays the launch of its third telco until 2021
