The Philippines gets a third telco player – finally?

Mislatel, the consortium backed by China Telecommunications and by the Philippines’s Udenna Corporation and its logistics arm Chelsea Logistics Holdings, has won the right to become the Philippines third telecom player, after two other bids were disqualified.

After 10 parties bought the necessary bid papers, three formal bids were received by the National Telecommunications Commission NTC and Department of Information and Communications Technology DICT.

But bids from Sear Telecom and Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp PTT were subsequently yanked after the November 6 deadline. The reasons reportedly given for this by Ellen Blanca Lopez, who heads the NTC's legal branch,...