San Miguel Corporation’s telecom business was bought by Globe and Smart last May 2016, the frequencies were distributed properly and some are voluntary returned to give a chance for a 3rd telecom player to enter into the Philippines for better competition.
It seems the thrid player is now making ways to enter the market faster than we expected. Last July 2016, the Philippine senate granted permission (Republic act 10898) to new telecommunications player “Infinivan” to be the 3rd telco player in the Philippines. The company recently held a soft launch / kick off party citing their goals and presence in the Philippines. Infinivan initially promotes that the network will have internet speeds that is 5x faster and cheaper than the current speed and price of the Philippines.
Infinivan hopes to achieve this through partnering with local cable TV service providers (ISPs) across the Philippines. Given the current setup with major partner PT&T (yes they are apparently still alive) and cable TV operators, they can cover the whole Philippines with a seamless, cheaper, & faster internet service from Infinivan.
Here is a video of their goal in mind
According to the report of SMNI News, Infinivan is now currently supplying internet 30% of the current available Cable TV networks in the Philippines. Though they did not disclose exactly who are these Cable TV providers.
If everything goes to plan for Infinivan, we might see the new telecommunications company available to the public by early 2017. What is not clear here though is their lineup of services such as mobile internet, calls & text as the only discussed part was fixed line internet through current cable TV networks.
