But there’s a catch

With the deal between Australian telco Telstra and food conglomerate San Miguel falling through, many people have lost faith for a third telco to challenge incumbents Smart and Globe. We’ve gone on record before that San Miguel will still try to launch the third telco within this year lest they lose their grip on the highly lucrative 700MHz spectrum that their rivals are lusting for, and it appears that we were right on the money. Sort of.

Ramon Ang $SMC: On Telco: We want to launch within the year. But we want to make sure our service is good before we switch on.

— Warren de Guzman (@wddeguzman) March 30, 2016

According to SMC head honcho Ramon Ang, the company is looking at launching their own telco this year, but they want to make sure that their service is good before they switch on.

The entry of a third telco is a good thing and will foster better competition and ultimately, more competitive rates from both Smart and Globe. Our sources say that SMC has put up a lot of the infrastructure for the new telco already, which points to an imminent launch in the near future.