The Philippines’ new third telco DITO Telecommunity (formerly Mislatel) is on course to meet its rollout commitments for the year ended 9 July 2020 – the first year of its operations – according to Eliseo Rio Jr., Undersecretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). In a radio interview at the weekend the DICT official confirmed: ‘In their report to us, they met [the commitments] and the site acquisition, this is part of it.’
DITO Telecommunity was confirmed as the new major player (NMP) on 19 November 2018 and officially received its operating licences on 8 July 2019. Led by Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy, the newcomer promised to deliver a minimum download speed of 27Mbps and outlined CAPEX and operating costs of PHP150 billion (USD2.89 billion) to achieve nationwide coverage of 37.03% in its first year. ‘Their commitment for the first year is 37% of our population will be reached by their services, more or less this means around a little less [than] 3,000 cell sites,’ said Rio. As such, DITO is mandated to erect at least 2,500 cell sites in the year to 9 July 2020, while by its fifth year of operation the NMP has pledged to have built out nationwide coverage to 84.01% with minimum speeds of 55Mbps, backed by capital expenditure of PHP257 billion.