{"id":36122,"date":"2019-08-14T12:31:19","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T04:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=36122"},"modified":"2019-08-14T12:31:22","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T04:31:22","slug":"smart-signs-deal-with-infrastructure-and-tower-sharing-services-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2019\/08\/14\/smart-signs-deal-with-infrastructure-and-tower-sharing-services-firms\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart signs deal with infrastructure and tower-sharing services firms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications has signed a\u00a0Memorandum of Understanding with leading Malaysia-based tower provider edotco Group Sdn. Bhd.\u00a0and Philippine-based common tower pioneer, ISOC Infrastructure Inc.\u00a0Under\u00a0the agreement,\u00a0Smart will co-locate its mobile phone network facilities in towers\u00a0jointly built by edotco\u00a0in partnership with\u00a0ISOC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreement is in line with the common tower initiative of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) designed to accelerate the roll-out of cellular network facilities throughout the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technology group of Smart has evaluated the list of available sites of edotco-ISOC and has initially identified around 71 sites where edotco-ISOC will build cell towers that fit within Smart\u2019s network roll out plan.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur agreement with the edotco-ISOC Group is a welcome development that will enable us to roll out our LTE, and, soon, our 5G base stations in a quicker and more cost-effective manner,\u201d said PLDT and Smart Chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan.  \u201cWe will thus be able to bring more advanced mobile phone services and faster internet to people in more parts of the country more expeditiously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSmart fully supports a common tower policy which, consistent with constitutional standards, respects the right of a mobile network operator to select and contract with common tower providers that meet the operator\u2019s commercial, technical, and financial qualifications and requirements\u201d, said Atty. Ray C. Espinosa, Senior Advisor to the President and CEO of Smart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart is currently in discussions with other common tower companies as part of Smart\u2019s selection process and intends to sign agreements with companies that meet Smart\u2019s requirements and completion timetable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suresh Sidhu, Chief Executive Officer of edotco Group said \u201cInfrastructure sharing has proven to help mobile network operators alleviate the cost of building and maintaining towers and also allow them to focus on their core business and service offerings. Building sharable infrastructure helps address the country\u2019s digital gap, creating the right environment for the nation\u2019s digital transformation, and we are pleased to be marking this partnership with Smart in the Philippines\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The agreement opens a breadth of many possibilities, particularly with the Philippines gearing up for 5G and other advanced cellular network technologies. The common tower initiative, a global practice, allows telcos to invest in cutting-edge technologies that would enable them to offer advanced mobile phone and internet services and to connect millions of Filipinos with the rest of the World,” Mr. Michael C. Cosiquien, ISOC Infrastructure Chairman, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISOC is a 100% Filipino-owned company, internationally recognized for its investments in property development and management, cold chain logistics and infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The edotco Group is the leading regional integrated telecommunications infrastructure services company in Asia.  It specializes in end-to-end solutions in the tower services sector including co-locations, build-to-suit, energy, transmission and operations and maintenance (O&M).  In partnership with the ISOC Infrastructure, Inc., it was one of the first tower service companies to sign agreements with the DICT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart is the midst of a nationwide deployment of its LTE and LTE-Advanced network that has won speed test awards from leading international internet testing and analysis firms like Ookla, OpenSignal and Tutela.  This is part of the PLDT Group\u2019s massive P78.4 billion capital expenditures program for its fixed and mobile networks.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The agreement is in line with the common tower initiative of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) designed to accelerate the roll-out of cellular network facilities throughout the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":28111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[6592,379,343],"class_list":["post-36122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-edotco","tag-pldt","tag-smart-communications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}