An infrastructure-oriented thinktank filed before the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) a freedom of information request seeking the disclosure of DITO Telecommunity’s second technical audit due to alleged discrepancies in the results of the technical audit and its customers’ actual real-world experiences.
However, Dito sources maintained they have already addressed all the issues raised by Infrawatch PH in the Senate hearing for their franchise and that the thinktank just keeps harping on them.
Infrawatch PH convenor and former House Information and Communications Technology committee member Terry Ridon maintained "the public has serious doubts on whether DITO has satisfied its performance commitment of serving 51.01%. of the population, or at least 55 million people."
"It appears technically impossible to service this number of people given the limits of DITO’s current infrastructure,” he argued.
He also raised doubts on whether all towers were adequately tested during the technical audit.
“The public should be able to determine whether all of DITO’S 3,000 cellsites had been inspected during the technical audit, as this would reflect whether this level of tower coverage corresponds to serve a specific percentage of the population," he argued.
Furthermore, Ridon says a third-party report by OpenSignal showed that DITO’s download, upload and video experiences have declined over the course of several months.
“Another third-party report made by Ookla, showed wide variances in DITO’s claimed downloads speeds and 5G, with actual tests showing slower speeds by more than seventy percent. These are levels of variances that are unacceptable by any standard.”
Earlier, DITO announced it has passed the technical audit for its second year commitment to state regulators and expects to haul in five to six million subscribers by yearend.
"The quality of our network is quite impressive," noted DITO Chief Administrative Officer Adel A. Tamano.
That is, considering that the telco has only set up its network in two years and has been operating for just six months while its two competitors have been established for over twenty years.
To address customer complaints of slow connection in Metro Manila, DITO is doubling the number of its cell sites in the metropolis befote year-end for more capacity and stable service.
As of last month, DITO is in 233 cities and municipalities nationwide and it will add 53 more service areas this September, ending the month with 286.
So far, it is mobilizing 4,384 cell towers after integrating 3,094 towers.
Its submarine cable linking Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao has been completed in less than 6 months and has been operating since March.
Next month, the telco will start work on phase 2, the submarine cable linking Palawan to the rest of the country, which will also serve as a redundant network for Visayas and Mindanao.
Phase 2 will be finished in the first quarter of 2022. As of September 9, DITO has 2.6 million subscribers, hauling in new ones at the average of 20,000 daily.
Dito stressed it has delivered on its national population coverage and minimum average broadband speed commitments for its second year audit.
Its national population coverage stood at 52.75 percent, higher than the 51 percent required in its certificate of public convenience and necessity.
DITO's minimum average broadband speeds are 89.13 mbps for 4G sites and 853.96 mbps for 5G. Its minimum average broadband speed committed for the second year was 55 mbps.
In February, the telco passed the first technical audit for its first year commitment to cover 37 percent of the population and provide 27 mbps minimum average internet speed.
DITO committed to increase basic internet speed to 55 mbps and cover 84 percent of the population over five years.