2018 Philippine third telecommunications provider bidding

[1] In 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte has urged the two established telecommunications to improve their services and said that he would allow the entry of new competitors if they refused to comply.

[2] In his third State of the Nation Address in 2018, Duterte has directed the DICT and the NTC to name the third telecommunications provider before the end of that year saying that the firm should selection process should be fair, reasonable and comprehensive.

[4] President Duterte has invited Chinese firms to enter the bid a move which has been described as a "political decision" by then Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.

[7] The final terms of reference was published by the DICT through Memorandum Circular 09-09-2018 on September 21, 2018, allowing interested firms to acquire bidding documents at ₱1 million each from the NTC starting October 6, 2018 with the deadline of submitting documents set on November 5, 2018, and by the same day participating firms as well as the "provisional new major player" would already be announced.

The winning company will have to submit prerequisite documents for the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity within 90 days from the issuance of the confirmation order.

[8] One of the companies which expressed interest to participate in the bid, NOW Telecom filed a petition before the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 24 against the NTC which seeks for an issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction.

There were three submitted bids:[22] The Mislatel consortium led by Udenna Corporation and China Telecom was named the "provisional new major player" on November 7, 2018.