Dennis Uy’s Filipino mobile start-up DITO Telecommunity is apparently nearing its target of five million mobile subscriptions by end-2021. In a statement yesterday (9 December), Ernesto Alberto – President DITO CME Holdings, the cellco’s parent company – confirmed: ‘We are very pleased that in less than a year since its commercial launch, DITO Telecommunity is fast approaching five million mobile subscribers,’ while Uy himself noted: ‘In just a short span of time, DITO Telecommunity has been able to quickly roll out its network in order to offer fast, reliable and wide reaching telecommunications services to the Filipino consumer.’
DITO Telecommunity passed its second technical audit headed by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in September 2021. In a stock market filing dated 7 September, DITO CME Holdings cited the regulator’s report – carried out by an independent auditor – as confirming that the third telco’s mobile network had a national population coverage of 52.75%, with minimum average data speeds of 89.13Mbps for 4G and 853.96Mbps for 5G. A statement from the parent company read: ‘Note that as part of the issuance of its Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity in July 2019, DITO committed to deliver national population coverage of 51.01% and minimum average broadband speed of 55Mbps in the second year of its commitment period’.
Meanwhile, the newcomer’s CTO Rodolfo Santiago has suggested that the new third telco will be even ‘more aggressive’ in challenging the dominance of the existing telcos beginning late 2021, and that ultimately it seeks a 30% market share – now that mobile number portability (MNP) has been implemented.