Philippines - Telecommunications Infrastructure and Forecasts

Synopsis

The Philippines telecommunications sector has witnessed substantial investment in infrastructure, driven initially by the Service Area Scheme for fixed-line development in the 1990s and, more recently, by the burgeoning mobile telephony market, following by a surge in interest in wireless broadband services. The fixed-line strategy resulted in a massive under-utilisation of infrastructure, with only 50% occupancy of installed fixed-line capacity. Fixed teledensity remained at less than 5% in 2010. By contrast, there has been good progress in the rollout of national fibre optic infrastructure as a number of the larger operators build IP-based Next Generation Networks. This report provides an overview of the local, national and international infrastructure that has been and is being put in place.

Key developments:

The Philippines continues to see a stagnating fixed-line market; despite a substantial installed capacity the number of subscribers has actually been declining. .A number of operators have moved forward on putting Next Generation Networks (NGNs) in place. PLDT said that the migration to an IP-backbone network was a key priority for its core fixed voice telephone business. The major operators – PLDT and Globe – continue to buy into regional and international submarine cable systems.

Companies covered in this report include:

PLDT, Smart Communications, Globe Telecom, Digitel, Bell Telecom, Bayantel, ETPI, Liberty Telecom.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. Telecommunications infrastructure
  • 2.1 Overview
• 3. National infrastructure
  • 3.1 Overview
  • 3.2 Fixed-line statistics
    • 3.2.1 Globe Telecom’s national fixed-line licence
  • 3.3 Background: Service Area Scheme (SAS)
  • 3.4 Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity
  • 3.5 National fibre optic networks
  • 3.6 Next Generation Networks (NGNs)
    • 3.6.1 PLDT
    • 3.6.2 Digitel
    • 3.6.3 ETPI
  • 3.7 Forecasts – fixed-line market – 2015; 2020
• 4. International infrastructure
  • 4.1 International gateways
  • 4.2 Submarine cable networks
    • 4.2.1 Background
    • 4.2.2 Asia-America Gateway (AAG) cable
    • 4.2.3 Tata Global Network-Intra Asia Cable System (TGN-IA)
    • 4.2.4 Unity Cable System (UCS)
  • 4.3 Satellite systems
    • 4.3.1 Satellite operators
    • 4.3.2 Common carriers
• 5. Infrastructure developments
  • 5.1 Wireless Local Loop (WLL)
    • 5.1.1 Overview
    • 5.1.2 Background
  • 5.2 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
    • 5.2.1 Background to development
    • 5.2.2 VoIP operators
  • 5.3 Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) services
• 6. Notes on scenario forecasts
• 7. Related reports

• Table 1 – Fixed lines in service and penetration – 1994 - 2012
• Table 2 – Fixed lines – proportion of urban and residential subscribers – 2007 - 2010
• Table 3 – Fixed lines installed versus lines in operation – 1995 - 2010
• Table 4 – Total SAS lines installed by operators by target date
• Table 5 – Forecast fixed line subscribers – 2015; 2020

• Exhibit 1 – Major submarine cables with landing points in the Philippines - 2010