DITO Telecommunity Corp. of Davao-based tycoon Dennis Uy reduced its net loss by four percent in the first nine months, fueled by growing demand for its mobile and fixed wireless access (FWA) services.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), DITO operator DITO CME Holdings Corp. said its net losses declined to ₱24.93 billion from January to September, compared to ₱25.85 billion in the same period last year.

DITO CME improved its revenues by 25 percent in the nine-month period to ₱14.92 billion from ₱11.89 billion last year, primarily generated by DITO.

This tempered higher expenses during the period, which rose by 14 percent to ₱24.65 billion, driven by higher operating costs as the country’s youngest telco continues to roll out its services.

As of Sept. 30, DITO has expanded to 961 cities and municipalities from 886 sites last year.

Over the nine months, the company reached a total of 15.22 million mobile subscribers, covering both prepaid and postpaid.

The average revenue per user (ARPU) for prepaid stood at ₱98 and ₱315 for postpaid, generating ₱13.72 billion in revenues or 92 percent of total revenue.

The FWA segment reached 319,000 subscribers in the nine-month period, with ARPU for prepaid and postpaid subscribers generating ₱203 and ₱765, respectively. Revenues from FWA totaled ₱861 million.

DITO spent ₱2.48 billion on capital expenditures (capex), a sharp 76-percent decline from ₱10.51 billion last year following the completion of its final audit.

DITO completed its fifth and final technical audit in September last year, which showed that the company has surpassed its commitment to the government of a national population coverage of 80.01 percent, by covering 86.3 percent.

Nonetheless, the company continues to invest in more infrastructure to expand its reach, with 44 new towers completed as of September.

While profitability is still out of reach, DITO said it will further ramp up its commercial operations through targeted subscriber acquisition and promotional activities to increase revenue and cash inflow.

“Also, the company will continue to efficiently implement its network rollout plan and cost-saving measures to improve the results of operations while maintaining network superiority,” it said.

To help finance ongoing expansion efforts, DITO is keen on tapping finance loan facilities and fund-raising activities.