The Philippines' Department of Information and Communications has indicated that it intends to push a beauty contest style process for selecting the market's third major telco player.
An informal poll of 15 potential new market entrants has indicated that 75% prefer a selection process involving the highest committed level of service, with just 17% preferring an auction model, the Manila Standardreported.
While the nation's finance ministry is still pushing for a spectrum auction instead, the report quotes acting DICT Secretary Eliseo Rio as stating that as far as the department is concerned it has enough data to push ahead with the beauty contest model.
Results from the survey will be presented to the oversight committee for the selection process, and barring major setbacks the department expects to name the third telco by end-September or early October.
The proposed selection criteria include commitments for national population coverage, annual expenditure and minimum broadband speed, weighted towards the first two criteria.
Annual minimum commitments will include 30% national population coverage, average broadband speeds of 5Mbps and capital and operational expenditure of 40 billion pesos ($748.2 million).
The third market entrant will compete against the Globe-PLDT duopoly and help fulfill the Philippines government's commitment of increasing the quality and affordability of telecoms services in the market.