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DITO Telecommunity Corp. is scheduled to begin commercial operations in 17 cities and municipalities in Mindanao and Visayas on March 8.
Adel A. Tamano, managing director of DITO, said in an online briefing on Tuesday that the commercial launch of the telecommunications company will take place in phases.
The third telecoms player will start offering its services in 17 cities and municipalities in Mindanao and Visayas, he added.
Mr. Tamano expects DITO services to be available nationwide in June.
According to its officials, DITO recently signed interconnection agreements with PLDT, Inc. and Globe Telecom, Inc.
In an emailed statement, PLDT said it would establish and manage the interconnection facility.
“The interconnection center will deliver the interconnection requirements of DITO, which will benefit all fixed and wireless subscribers of PLDT and DITO by allowing them to communicate and connect to all necessary services,” said PLDT.
The prefixes of the mobile numbers of the new telecommunications company are: 0991, 0992, 0993, 0994, 0895, 0896, 0897 and 0898.
The National Telecommunications Commission announced this Monday that DITO fulfilled its commitments to cover 37.03% of the country’s population and provide a minimum average broadband speed of 27 megabits per second (Mbps) in its first year of service.
The independent auditor RG Manabat & Co. said in its report that DITO’s national population coverage reached 37.48%, while its average minimum speed of broadband delivered reached 85.9 Mbps and 507.5 Mbps for all 4G and 5G sites, respectively.
DITO’s chief technology officer, Rodolfo D. Santiago, said in the briefing that speeds may differ from the audit results when the telco starts to gain subscribers.
“We don’t want to promise too much that we will give more,” Tamano said. “We want to maintain the minimum average speed of 27 Mbps once we operate.”
The telecommunications company is committed to achieving 55 Mbps and 85% coverage during its second to fifth year of business operations.
The company is confident that it will pass the second technical audit in July, according to Santiago.
DITO spent P150 billion last year and its goal is to spend P26 billion more this year.
When asked about DITO’s marketing strategy, Mr. Tamano said the company will not spend “millions” to get sponsors.
“We’d rather spend our money on towers than on K-Pop stars,” he said.
Both Globe and PLDT have hired Korean celebrities as their brand ambassadors.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund, has a controlling interest in Business world through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. – Arjay L. Balinbin
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