President Duterte’s initiative of bringing in a third major telco provider continues to gain momentum as DITO Telecommunity announced on Thursday that it has completed the construction of 1,532 towers to date.

This completion rate, DITO claims, is more than enough to satisfy the minimum 37-percent population coverage needed to meet for the new telco’s technical audit on January next year.

In a bidding process that was lauded as fair and transparent by Malacanang and cited by Better Broadband Alliance convenor Mary Grace Mirandilla as a model that should be emulated by other government projects for its transparency, DITO committed to cover 84 percent of the Philippine population and offer a minimum average internet speed of 55 Mbps by the end of 2024.

DITO’s Adel Tamano says that the company has already spent over P150 billion for the telco’s initial infrastructure roll-out and other operating expenses. In its bid, the new telco player committed to spend P250 billion over the next five years to achieve 55 mbps of internet speed and cover 84 percent of the population

DITO says it is ready to launch the country’s newest telco in 160 days and that it continues to hire new employees in preparation for its commercial roll-out. The company currently has 626 employees.

DITO’S entry in the market is a welcome development in the telco industry. A healthier competition within the industry fulfills President Duterte’s promise to the Filipino people of better telco service thru cheaper prices and improved internet speed.