TransCo president Melvin Matibag said in Manila that he wants congressional approval to turn the company into both “a transmission company and a telecommunications company”.
Transco’s masts are already used by Globe and PLDT’s mobile arm, Smart, said Matibag, who told reporters that the company that he is putting his proposals to authorities in the Philippines and hopes to have approval before the end of 2017.
“Congress will have to come up with a separate charter for TransCo – and it can become the National Transmission and Telecommunications Corporation,” he said, according to Manila Bulletin.
TransCo will target broadband coverage in under-served areas, he suggested. “The mere fact that big telco companies like Globe and Smart are co-locating in our transmission facilities, it seems the idea will fly and I want to make sure that it will really fly because the country needs it,” said Matibag, a former airport executive who took over TransCo in February 2017.
“This is a long process but we have to start now,” said Matibag, according to reports from Manila. The project will “address problems of the internet”, he said, and income will help “to lower the cost of electricity and, at the same time, the government will generate income”.
