PLDT Inc., Smart Communications Inc. and DITO Telecommunity have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to pursue strategic resource-sharing initiatives aimed at expanding network coverage and delivering more reliable connectivity across the country.
“Connecting the country is a responsibility that we all share as Philippine telcos,” PLDT Chairman and CEO Manuel Pangilinan said in a statement.
“This agreement reflects that, even as we compete in the marketplace, we can collaborate where it matters the most, which is accelerating digital inclusion, helping connect every Filipino and creating greater opportunities for our people and our nation,” he added.
DITO Telecommunity President and CEO Eric Alberto, meanwhile, said: “This partnership.... allows both companies to deliver much better services for all our respective customers.”
“May this partnership usher and blossom into many more things so that we can have meaningful results for our companies, and more importantly, for the betterment of services for all our respective customers.”
The agreement establishes a framework for collaboration through reciprocal resource sharing, with no monetary exchange or related charges.
The telcos said they would grant each other reciprocal rights to use eligible tower sites.
The MOU also covers in-building solution colocation and enables all involved parties to share telecommunications infrastructure within commercial buildings and other indoor locations and submarine cable capacity.
Instead of building separate infrastructure in the same locations, the parties involved intend to maximize the use of existing sites and in-building facilities, which will help reduce unnecessary duplication of network investments.
Smart is a unit of PLDT, whose share price rose by P40, or 3.54 percent, to close at P1,171 apiece while those of DITO Telecommunity parent firm DITO CME Holdings Corp. added 20 centavos, or 2.78 percent, to close at P0.74.