DITO to go beyond population coverage commitment, reach far-flung areas -Tamano

Third telco DITO Telecommunity Corp. is eyeing to reach further population coverage beyond its commitment to the government, in a bid to connect far-flung areas to its network.

“Our commitment after five years is [84%] population coverage. We intend to go beyond that,” DITO chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said in an interview on CNN Philippines’ “The Source” on Tuesday.

“Our internal goal is well beyond that,” he said.

Under its certificate of public convenience and necessity, DITO is mandated to meet its voluntary commitments every year for its first five years of operations, else lose its P24 billion performance bond.

DITO vowed to provide a minimum speed of 27 megabits per second (Mbps) and achieve a nationwide coverage of 37.03% in its first year of operations.

The company also committed to cover 84% of the Philippine population and offer a minimum average speed of at least 55 Mbps by the end of its commitment in five years.

“Telcos should bear in mind that it's not just about profit. It's about serving people in far-flung areas who aren't able to access information because of the lack of coverage,” Tamano said.

“We hope to address that within our five-year commitment period,” he said.

In a press briefing last week, DITO disclosed that it has constructed a total of 859 towers, more than half of the 1,300 towers needed to achieve the mandated goal of 37% of population coverage and 27 megabits per second (Mbps) internet speed by January 2021.

The NTC extended the July technical audit on DITO due to the delay caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

Under the current extension, DITO is given within six months to deliver the commitments for the technical audit requirements- that is to provide a speed of 27 Mbps to cover 37% percent of the population, which is supposed to be on July 8.

For this year alone, Tamano said DITO is spending P150 billion of its P257-billion investment commitment.

The DITO official reiterated that DITO is a Filipino-owned company despite having Chinese shareholders.

Tamano also maintained that DITO’s agreement with the AFP will not put national security at risk since specific provisions are laid out to ensure spying and obtaining of classified information will not happen.

“DITO is run by Filipinos. When you talk about the management and operations of DITO, we would never allow classified information to be provided to any country,” he said.

“Our chief technology officer [Rodolfo Santiago] is a retired major general. We chose him specifically because we wanted to assure the public that issues of spying would have no basis,” he added.

DITO’s deal with the AFP to co-locate telecommunications infrastructure in military camps has been met with various oppositions, as concerns about espionage and obtaining of classified information were raised.

Lawmakers are also looking into blocking the deal.—AOL, GMA News