The country’s third telecom player has secured a $500-million loan to partly finance its capital expenditure for network buildout in preparation for its commercial launch by March 2021.
DITO Telecommunity Corp., the consortium of China Telecommunications Corp. and Dennis Uy-led Udenna Corp, has drawn from the facility worth $500 million or P25 billion through the Bank of China.
This will partly finance the P150-billion capex for the first year of DITO’s operation.
Adel Tamano, DITO chief administration officer and corporate secretary, told reporters yesterday more than 50 percent of the capex will be used for network buildout and the remaining for the office back-end, customer services among others.
To date, DITO has built 600 base stations, a combination of company-owned and common towers including rooftop installations.
The company targets to build 1,600 towers by end July this year, enough to deliver the promised minimum internet speed of 27 megabits per seconds (mpbs) and with 37 percent coverage nationwide.
DITO will be ready for the first year audit of the National Telecommunication Commission also by July.
The audit will ensure the network is in place and is in compliance with the committed speed and coverage.
By September this year, the company will conduct a pre-commercial launch prior to the mandated the commercial launch in March 2021.
Tamano said DITO will ensure services will be better and cheaper than competitors’ to capture market share.
The company will initially launch mobile services using fourth generation (4G) and fifth generation (5G) technologies.
