The coronavirus pandemic has affected the timetable of the Dito Telecommunity to provide internet services in the country by July.
During a hearing of the Senate public services committee Wednesday, July 1, Dito's chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said that the company only has 300 operational cell towers, far from the 1,300 it committed to build to cover the 37 percent of the country's population.
The 1,000 remaining cell towers are still in "various stages of completion", he said.
"The COVID-19 and the lockdowns prevented us from our full rollout. With the subsequent easing of different lockdown situations, we are doing our best to get back on track so that we can get the 37 percent first-year requirement under our CPCN (certificate of public convenience and necessity)," he further explained.
Senator Grace Poe, committee chair, recalled that Dito initially committed to build cell towers in 2,500 locations in the country, but Tamano replied that 1,300 towers would be enough to meet the target coverage.
Dito had promised to provide internet access to at least 37 percent of the population at a minimum internet speed of 27 megabits per second (Mbps) by July 8 this year. This coverage will increase to 84 percent within five years.
Tamano said they plan to complete the construction of 2,000 cell towers within the year, and a total of 10,000 over the next five years.
Eliseo Rio, former undersecretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) who led in the selection of a third telecommunication in the country, said that under the terms of reference, Dito would still be given six more months to satisfy its missed commitments.
"Definitely they are saying that they could not have the 1,300 by July 8. And that is still within the requirements," Rio told the committee.
But failure to fulfill their commitments to the government within the five-year period would result in the forfeiture of Dito's P25.7-million performance bond, he noted.
Dito Telecommunity, formerly called Mislatel, was chosen as the third telecommunication player to improve internet connectivity in the country.
Rio said that as per their franchise, the company is set to start commercial operations in March 2021.