A South Korean telecommunications company has expressed interest to compete with China to be the third party player in the Philippines, an official said.

In a radio interview on Tuesday, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar said during the 21st Cabinet meeting on Monday in Malacanang, Department of Information and Communications Technology Officer-in charge Eliseo Rio Jr. said Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (PT&T), with a Korean telecom company as partner, also wants to operate in the country.

"DICT Acting Secretary Rio mentioned that so far two (companies) are interested to become third player in the telecommunications industry. First is the China Telecom, plus the consortium that was not yet mentioned; and second in the list is the PT&T group and their Korean telecom company partner," he said.

Andanar did not name the South Korean company.

He reiterated that the target for the third player to come in is first quarter of this year.

President Rodrigo Duterte offered last year China to be the third telco player in the country to make the industry more competitive.

Andanar noted that even if there is no third player, the telco duopoly, PLDT Group and Globe Telecom, have committed to earmark additional funds to improve their respective services.

"So, we can really see that even just the announcement itself, these two telco giants were encouraged to invest money to improve their services. So, that in itself is already victory for the Filipino people," Andanar said.

"So, this is really going to be an exciting year for the telco industry," he added. Celerina Monte/DMS