Third China-Backed Telecom Company DITO Sets Land Acquisition Guidelines for Use of Towers and Cell Sites

MANILA – DITO Telecommunity said Friday that the locations of its facilities have been predetermined, as it published guidelines for acquiring land to be used for its towers and base stations.

The guidelines were released to help homeowners who will sell or rent the properties needed by the third telecoms player to implement their services by March 2021.

In a statement, the third telecommunications company said it has appointed 4 authorized representatives to assist in site acquisitions, namely:

• Huawei for Northern Luzon and the National Capital Region
• ZTE for Southern Luzon and the Visayas
• Nokia-Huaxin for Mindanao
• Udenna infrastructure

Authorized providers have the proper identification and authorization letters. These are properly disclosed to the respective local government units, he said.

“We wish to inform the public that the locations for the construction of the DITO infrastructure in time for its deployment and launch have already been predetermined and were included in the plan presented to the Philippine government even before July 2019,” said the telco. .

The public is informed of the following when conducting transactions with authorized DITO agents:

• A memorandum is provided to the owner, containing rental rates, conditions and other terms.
• DITO teams or providers verify and validate the documents provided by the land owner
• Signing the contract is the last step
• DITO or its representatives “never promise” a full rental payment to landlords. Only provide a maximum of 3 months in advance on monthly rentals
• DITO or its agents will never request processing fees from owners
• DITO or its agents never ask for commissions

DITO pledged to build at least 1,300 towers in its first year, to cover at least 37 percent of the population. Sites are required for tower structures.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana previously said that he recently signed an agreement that allows the telecommunications company to build cell phone towers within military camps.

“We want to assure the public that anyone caught posing as employees or representatives of DITO Telecommunity or any of its providers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” he said.

DITO is a consortium of Dennis Uy and Chelsea Logistics’ Udenna Corp with China Telecom.

The third telco is building its network to challenge the Globe Telecom and PLDT Inc duopoly with its commercial launch scheduled for March 2021.