Our third telco might well be Korean, not Chinese
While all eyes are focused on China Telecom and their eventual partner if they ever decide to enter the Philippine market, another player is getting ready to break the duopoly of PLDT and Globe in the Philippines.
According to GMA News Online, local firm Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (PT&T) is apparently in “advanced stages of talks” with a South Korean telco, according to its chairman Salvador Zamora a few days after New Year.
“We will soon make a disclosure to the PSE (Philippine Stock Exchange) that we are in an advanced stage of talks with another telco provider, not from China,” Zamora noted.
“It’s about our entry to mobile,” Zamora added. He declined to name the South Korean telco.
Earlier last year Lucio Tan Jr., Salvador Zamora II and Benjamin Bitanga bought 559.99 million shares, or 70 percent of PT&T, from previous owner Republic Telecommunications Holdings Inc.
PT&T already has some kind of infrastructure in place in the country, and according to the company it already maintains over 500 kilometers of redundant fiber optic routes in the country. Currently the company is in the fixed-line broadband business, and does not offer wireless data solutions.
