China Telecom has established a consortium with local companies Udenna and Chelsea Logistics to bid for the Philippines' third mobile operator license. Dubbed Mislatel, the consortium would use Udenna's supply chain knowledge, China Telecom's technologies and Chelsea's logistics and distribution network to deliver the service, ABS-CBN News reports. The National Telecommunications Commission qualified the bid as the sole candidate after an initial evaluation of offers.
Reuters reports that there were only two rival bids to Mislatel’s, from local companies, but both were rejected by the telecoms regulator for being incomplete. The two disqualified bids were from Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp and a consortium of TierOne and LCS Group. Both bidders said they would appeal the regulator’s decision.
Mislatel said its "immediate priority will be to prepare and to consolidate all the required resources in order to provide the best telecommunications services that Filipinos have been aspiring for". The new player will compete with existing operators PLDT and Smart Communications.
South Korea’s KT issued a statement with Philippines firm Converge ICT confirming they had decided against bidding, while Vietnam’s Viettel, which in August confirmed its interest in the Philippines, said it would not contest. Telenor had bought bid documents but did not enter the contest.
The Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte launched the contest to bring a third mobile operator to the market in order to improve services. He favoured a Chinese operator entering the market, to help boost the country's economic ties with China.
