DITO optimistic

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DITO Telecommunity Corp. is ready for the government’s technical audit on its network by January 2021 saying it has built more than enough towers to deliver its promised internet speed and coverage.

“Our network is ready for technical audit; we are making sure that our network is ready for the commercial launch in March (2021),” Rodolfo Santiago, Dito chief technology officer, said in a virtual press briefing.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology and the National Telecommunications Commission are set to conduct a 30-day technical audit beginning on Jan.7, 2020. Once the company passes the audit, it can proceed with its commercial rollout.

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DITO has built more than 1,900 towers and deployed over 12,000 kilometers of fiber cable which is quite significant to deliver its committed 27 megabits per second (Mbps) minimum internet speed and 37 percent coverage during its first year of operation by next year, according to Santiago.

“We are installing our own national backbone. We are connecting our island by installing national backbone. We are very, very confident we can achieve our commitment in January 7, 2020,” he added.

Since March, DITO has made its first phone and video calls, two months ahead of schedule, that signified its core network is in place and has since expanded when the series of 5G phone and video calls were made last October.

The company is conducting a friendly user test, as mandated in its certificate of public convenience and necessity, that runs in selected areas of the National Capital Region, Visayas and Mindanao.

The company has spent over P150 billion as investment for its network build-out and is expected to spend P50 billion per year in the succeeding years.

The amount is part of the P257 billion committed investment in its first five years of operation to deliver 55 Mbps minimum internet speed and 84 percent coverage.

DITO is also building data centers, with eight regional and two permanent core network centers under construction. The company likewise invested P1 billion for its cybersecurity solution.

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