The Senate Public Services Committee on Wednesday, March 10, approved the application of Dito Telecommunity for a franchise renewal.
Upon Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri's motion, the committee passed House Bill No. 7332, which seeks to grant the telecommunications firm a 25-year legislative permit "to construct, establish, install, maintain and operate wire and/or wireless telecommunication systems in the country." "Congratulations to our resource persons…And also to Dito Telecommunications and all the other franchises, congratulations," Senator Grace Poe, committee chairperson, said before adjourning the public hearing.
She confirmed it later in a text message: "Dito in particular is approved on the committee level." Dito was recognized as the Philippines' third major telecommunications player in 2018 to break the duopoly of Smart Communications and Globe Telecom and improve communications and internet services in the country.
It currently operates thru the legislative franchise granted by law to Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company (Mislatel) in 1998, which was transferred to the consortium of Davao businessman Dennis Uy's Udenna Corporation and its subsidiary Chelsea Logistics Corp., and state-owned China Telecommunications Corp. in 2019.
The original franchise expires in 2023.
During the hearing, Poe delved into Dito's compliance with its commitments to government.
Due to the delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the telco was earlier given until January of this year to deliver its first-year commitment to cover at least 37 percent of the country's population and provide a minimum internet speed of 27 Megabits per second (mbps).
NTC Commissioner Edgardo Cabarios told the public service panel that based on the technical audit conducted by the third-party auditor, Dito has complied with its commitments, covering 37.48 percent of the population.
For the required internet speed, Dito's minimum average speed is 85.9 mbps for 4G, and 507.5 mbps for 5G.
The telco has 1,602 operational cell sites to date, he said.
"These are higher than the commitment for the first year," Cabarios noted.
Dito started its commercial rollout just last Monday, March 8 in at least 15 cities in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said a total 22,748 persons have signed up online to avail of their services, 6,597 of which were qualified.
As of March 9, a total of 7,586 subscribers purchased their SIM cards.
"Of course that number is increasing as we speak," Tamano said.
Dito's chief technology officer, ex-general Rodolfo Santiago, said they are "confident" that they can meet the population coverage of 51 percent asked of the telco, as part of its second-year commitment which must be implemented by July this year.
"Because right now, we are nearing 45 percent population coverage and that we are very aggressive in our 5G rollout that would allow use to maintain the 55 mbps minimum average broadband speed," Santiago said.
"That's good news," Poe said of Dito's report.
The second audit on Dito's performance will be conducted in July, Cabarios said. "And we expect that they will be moving faster in the rollout because by that time, there will be users already in the network." Aside from Dito's franchise, Senate committee also tackled on Wednesday the franchise requests of Instant Date, Transpacific BGI and several broadcast firms and institutions. "Other franchise applications are pending based on the submission of some requested documents," Poe said.