By EMMIE V. ABADILLA
With half a year to go before the government-mandated deadline for the country's third player, DITO Telecommunity, to fulfill its initial roll-out commitment, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II has called for a closed-door discussion for a status update with the telco's executives.
“DICT was concerned about DITO's capability of to fulfill its commitments," he noted. "However, based on our discussions, I'm satisfied that DITO is on its way to deliver on its promise of cheaper and more efficient service to the subscribing public.”
“We are on track to meet our year-one commitment to the government and to the Filipino people to provide world-class telecommunications services,” confirmed DITO Chief Administrative Officer Adel Tamano.
In its report to DICT, the third telco gave updates on its tower building activities, the deals it secured for infrastructure development, as well as projected timetables. It also gave construction updates on network operations centers and the rollout of its crucial infrastructure.
DITO committed 55mbps Internet speed and the more than 80-percent coverage of the population within the mandated five-year period.
In the first few months of 2019 alone, DITO acquired more than 3,000 sites for infrastructure development and construction was fully underway, Tamano pointed out. “We’ve embraced early on that collaboration, partnership, and building new synergies can ensure delivery of our commitments to the Filipino.”
The telco is working with over 12,000 consumer retail touchpoints that UDENNA Corporation and its subsidiaries provide with its current network.
Since October, DITO has entered into various agreements with various tower construction and key contractor companies like the LCS Group of Chavit Singson, China Energy Equipment Co. Ltd, Filipino-Malaysian Consortium ZEAL Power Construction & Development Corporation, Leo Technologies Infrastructure Corporation and Alt-Global-Solutions, Inc.
“Working with our partners guarantees we have the critical pieces in place. The data centers of DITO are very close to completion, fiber resources to link the entire network have been leased from partners like SkyCable, and our very own fiber network is under construction as well. All of these together give us every confidence that we will meet our first year commitments,” the CAO elaborated.
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) awarded a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to DITO, formerly known as Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company, Inc. (MISLATEL) last July.
The telco is a Filipino consortium that includes Udenna Corporation, Chelsea Logistics and Infrastructure, and China Telecommunications Corporation.