Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), the country’s largest telco, is seeking to recover approximately PhP1bn (US$23m) from the sale of 3G spectrum held by its subsidiary Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprise (CURE), reported local…
Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), the country’s largest telco, is seeking to recover approximately PhP1bn (US$23m) from the sale of 3G spectrum held by its subsidiary Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprise (CURE), reported local media.
Napoleon Nazareno, the company’s CEO, was quoted telling the Malaysa Business Insight that the PhP1bn amount represents the investment made by PLDT in CURE. In an email to TelecomFinance, a spokesperson for PLDT however clarified that this amount is just an indicative number and the final figure is still being studied.
The sale of those frequencies was among the conditions set by the regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), for the approval of the US$1.6bn acquisition of number three Digitel by PLDT.
The company said it presented a plan to the country’s regulator to divest CURE, in an attempt to ease concerns over the amount of 3G spectrum PLDT would hold following the transaction. CURE currently owns 10 MHz of 3G frequency in the 2,100 MHz band.
According to the newspaper citing the NTC, CURE’s frequencies will be sold through a bidding process by 2013.