LGUs told to assist in location of cell sites

BONTOC, Mountain Province  – The Cordillera Regional Developed Council (RDC-CAR) approved a resolution requesting all local government units (LGUs) to assist the different telecommunication companies in identifying government lots that will serve as potential sites for the establishment of additional towers of the companies to improve the mobile phone signals in the different parts of the region.

If the identified potential sites of the towers will be private properties, the RDC-CAR told local officials to assist the telecommunication companies in finding the reasonable rentals for the said properties to prevent private individuals from taking advantage of the situation.

Earlier, the provincial government led by Gov. BonifacioLacwasan, Jr. submitted Provincial Development Council (PDC) Resolution No. 7, series of 2016 and Sangguniang Panlalawigan Resolution No. 2016-383 to the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) stating, among others, that even without weather disturbances, internet access or connectivity and mobile paid phone signals are poor and none at all.

Both resolutions underscored the very poor telecommunication signals greatly hamper government and business operations in the province while there are still barangays provincewide which are not reached by Smart and Globe signals depriving the people access to information, among others.

The two resolutions requested the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) to invite other telecommunication service providers to invest in the province and for the existing service providers, Smart and Globe, to improve their services, including coordination with LGUs in relation to land disputes.

Representatives of Smart and Globe who appeared before the second quarter meeting of the RDC-CAR took note of the concerns of Mountain Province and informed the members of the region’s policy-making body that lessor problems continue to affect the operation of the towers of the companies because landowners shut down the operation of the cellsites due to alleged problems on lease rentals and the conflict among claimants of the properties where the cellsites are built.

The company representatives requested the support of concerned local officials to intervene in settling disputes among landowners over their properties where their cellsites were established, thus, the enactment of the resolution requesting the concerned local government units to first locate government properties as potential sites for telecommunication towers and for local officials to intervene in the determination of the reasonable rental fees if cellsites are to be located on private properties.

Both companies committed the put up of 15 additional cellsites in the different parts of the region by the end of the first semester this year to help boost the signals in the concerned localities where there are weak signals or none at all.

The RDC-CAR urged the service providers to review their existing rentals to conform with the prevailing economic situation in their areas of operation considering that their rentals are allegedly obsolete.

By HENT