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DITO nearing 1 million subscribers 3 months after launch, says Tamano


Third telco DITO Telecommunity Corp.'s number of subscribers is approaching one million a few months after its official launch in March, an executive said on Friday.

At a virtual press conference on Friday, DITO chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said, “As of today, we are close to hitting one million subscribers.”

To be exact, DITO Brand and Marketing director Jasper Evangelista said that as of June 10, the so-called third telco player has around 890,000 subscribers already.

“When we introduced DITO last May 17 in NCR (National Capital Region) and in other locations, we were just at the half-million subscriber mark, and in just three weeks, we found ourselves about to hit a million subscribers,” Tamano said.

“We are optimistic to reach one million soon,” he said.

For his part, DITO chief technology officer Rodolfo Santiago said the concentration of areas served by DITO continues to be in the Visayas and Mindanao “as we started rolling out in those areas but Metro Manila is fast catching up.”

“As of now, we cover 100 cities and municipalities — that is commercial service. Starting tomorrow, [June 12] we will add 23 cities and municipalities more. By the end of June, we will approximate about 150 total cities and municipalities,” Santiago said.

The DITO chief technology officer reiterated that the telco is targeting to catch at least 30% of the market.

Independence Day

To commemorate the 123 years of Philippine independence, DITO will be available in 123 areas in time for June 12.

The 23 new areas are as follows:

  • Dagupan City and Manaoag in Pangasinan
  • Magalang in Pampanga
  • Pandi in Bulacan
  • La Paz Tarlac
  • Calauan and Victoria Laguna
  • Taysan and Balete in Batangas
  • Bacolod City and Pulupandan Negros Occidental
  • Moalboal, Bogo, San Remigio, Sogod, Alcantara, Santander, Ginatilan in Cebu
  • Kidapawan City and Makilala in North Cotabato
  • Santa Cruz and Bansalan in Davao del Sur
  • Malaybalay City in Bukidnon

In the issue of connectivity in currently covered areas, Santiago said, “We ask our subscribers to please not expect 100% coverage yet. There are of course isolated areas in the covered cities and municipalities that may experience intermittent service as we ramp up optimization of our network.”

He added that DITO is in more than 37% population coverage now and is fast approaching the second year population coverage commitment of 51%.

DITO is set to undergo its second technical audit in July, to check if the company has fulfilled its second year commitments.

DITO — formerly named the Mislatel Consortium — committed to have a nationwide coverage of 51.01% in its second year of operations, with a minimum speed of 55 Mbps and a capex/opex of P27 billion.

To date, Santiago said DITO has already activated 3,000 cell sites.

He said that DITO needs between 3,100 and 3,200 cell towers to have a “comfortable” level of coverage to pass its second audit.

“We are very comfortable that we will pass our second year audit,” Santiago said.

On the issue of areas not covered by DITO, the DITO chief technology officer said, “We do ask for the public’s understanding. There may be instances where consumers may already detect DITO especially in areas wherein we have not formally announced the availability of service, let me reiterate that in these unserved areas,  there are some components that we are readying to ensure the customer experience is excellent.”

As part of the Independence Day celebration, DITO announced an exclusive "Freedom Offers" from June 12 to 18, 2021.

The promo is available exclusively in the official DITO Telecommunity Store on Shopee and Lazada, the DITO UNLI 499 promo offers unlimited data for 30 days for only P499.

The promo can have 2GB of high-speed data that refreshes daily and up to 5Mbps speed upon consumption of the 2GB.

The promo also includes unlimited DITO to DITO calls, 300 minutes of calls to all mobile networks, and unlimited SMS to all networks. -NB, GMA News

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