MANILA, Philippines – Davao City businessman Dennis Uy‘s Udenna Corporation and telecommunications giant China Telecom’s consortium called Mislatel provisionally won the country’s 3rd major telco slot. 

Mislatel garnered a total of 456.8 points out of a possible perfect score of 500, in what was dubbed a “beauty pageant” for telco aspirants.

The consortium was the only one scored according to the criteria set, or the Highest Level Commitment of Service (HCLOS). The two other contenders lacked the sufficient certifications to even get to that stage, but they are still set to appeal their cases.

If it really were a beauty pageant contestant, Mislatel had to flaunt 3 assets: speed (25%), coverage (40%), and capital/operational expenditure (35%). 

For 5 years, Mislatel will have to commit to its promises stated in the contest. Failure to do so would mean a cut from its performance security ranging from P14 billion to P24 billion.

Check out Mislatel’s commitments in the charts below.

Speed

Mislatel promised to provide internet speed of 27 megabits per second (Mbps) on average in its 1st year of business. (READ: Duterte Year 2: The broadband picture)

It then committed to more than double that to 55 Mbps in its 2nd to 5th years of operations.

The HCLOS set the minimum speed at only 5 Mbps.

Meanwhile, 2017 data of OpenSignal revealed that Smart Communications’ LTE download speed stood at only 10.6 Mbps. Globe Telecom’s speed hovered around 7 and 8 Mbps.

3G speeds were roughly the same for the two networks at around 2.5 Mbps.

National coverage

It pledged to provide 37.03% nationwide coverage in its 1st year of operations and up to 84.01% in its 5th year.

Under the HCLOS, the 3rd telco player is only required to have coverage of at least 50% after 5 years.

In terms of 4G availability, OpenSignal data showed Globe’s coverage stood at 67.79%, about 4 points higher than Smart’s 64%.

Capital/operational expenditure

Mislatel committed to spend a total of P257 billion in 5 years.

It plans capital expenditure of P150 billion in its 1st year and P27 billion for the next 4 years.

Globe spent P42.5 billion in capex in 2017 and intends to spend around the same in 2018.

Smart‘s capex in 2017 was around P47 billion. It plans to spend over P50 billion in 2018, its highest allotment to date.

Mislatel’s documents will undergo another verification phase before it is officially crowned as the winner of the 3rd telco spot. – Rappler.com