Dito Telecommunity Corp. hopes to continue riding its subscriber base growth momentum throughout the year as it expands it coverage to over half of the country’s cities and municipalities this year.
Rodolfo D. Santiago, the company’s chief technology officer, said the rate by which Dito’s subscriber base is growing is a “surprising” feat that can be sustained through its planned expansion to more areas.
“We’re very aggressive in opening up add cities and municipalities. The potential subscriber base will increase as we expand our coverage. Judging from the three-month experience, if we sustain that pace of getting subscribers, it’ll be an amazing subscriber growth,” he said.
Currently, Dito is close to hitting one million subscribers. This, Santiago said, is already a feat for the company considering that Dito is technically only available to 37 percent of the population.
“This means that if we’re very strict in computing, that’s only about 30 million of the total population coverage, and 1 million of the 30 million is a very high number. Of the 30 million, only 40 percent of the population are mobile phone subscribers, so that’s about 12 million. So, 1 million of 12 million is about less than 10 percent. At this early stage, that’s a very good number,” Santiago said.
Dito Chief Administrative Officer Adel B. Tamano said Dito was able to attract close to 1 million subscribers despite the current restrictions.
“We’ve done it during the time of Covid, lockdown—just to be able to build our network, do the launch, and hit 1 million subscribers in three months,” he said.
Dito is currently available in 123 areas in the Philippines. It is set to expand its coverage to 51 percent of the population this year, one of its commitments to the government in securing the third telco franchise.
A network audit is set for July 8 to determine if Dito is delivering its commitments for its second year of operations: 55 Mbps of average download speed with 51 percent network coverage and an 80-percent network reliability rate.
Santiago noted that his group is ready for the second audit.
“We’re about ready to complete the minimum 51 percent population coverage that is required by July 8. We’re just finalizing our preparations for our second-year audit.”
Santiago, however, admitted that Dito has been having challenges in building its network in Metro Manila, as it faces backlash from home owners associations of villages.
“There are areas even in the commercial areas already that would have some gaps,” he said. “We really wanted to fast-track and cover the whole of Metro Manila. But there are some restrictions that we are subjected to that we cannot do anything unless we are permitted.”