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MANILA -- The Philippines' provisional third telco wants to bring internet connection speeds to nearly as fast as Singapore, a Cabinet official said Thursday.

Mislatel, a joint venture between China Telecom and Davao tycoon Dennis Uy, pledged minimum speed of 27 mbps in its first year, said Department of Information and Communications Technology officer in charge Eliseo Rio.

Globe Telecom and PLDT Inc offers up to 10 mbps in their most basic packages, Rio told DZMM.

With the promise to bring speeds to 55 mbps by the second year of operations, Mislatel will be "nearly at par" with speeds in Singapore, Rio said.

Should it fail to fulfill its commitments, Rio said the government would take back the frequency awarded to Mislatel and collect a P14-billion performance bond.

"Kung hindi nila magawa iyan, bibigyan namin sila ng 6 months na palugit para mag-comply. Kung hindi nila ma-comply 'yan, sorry, " he said.

(We will give them a 6-month grace period should they fail to comply. If they still cannot comply after that, then sorry.)

Mislatel is expected to begin accepting subscribers by mid-2019, Rio said.

President Rodrigo Duterte had pushed for the entry of a third telco player to challenge PLDT and Globe, and improve communication and internet services in the country.

The Philippines was once named as the country with the second slowest internet in the world, next only to war-torn Afghanistan.