Kampante ang telecommunications giant na PLDT Inc. sa kanilang posisyon sa industriya sa harap na pagpasok ng DITO Telecommunity Corporation sa susunod na linggo.

Ayon sa PLDT, malayo ang hahabulin sa kanila at sa Globe ng DITO, na nakatakdang magsimulang tumanggap ng kliyente sa ilang lugar sa Visayas at Mindanao sa Marso 8.

Sa virtual press conference nitong Huwebes, tinanong ang mga opisyal ng PLDT kung papaano naghahanda ang kanilang kompanya sa pagpasok ng ikatlong kakompetisyon sa telecom industry.

“We cannot comment on what DITO is doing, but what I can really tell you is as far as we have information in the areas DITO is launching, they cannot [get] even close on the coverage we have already,” ayon kay PLDT-Smart chief Technology and Information advisor Joachim Horn.

Una rito, sinabi ng DITO na nakagawa na sila ng 1,900 cell sites, na sasakop sa 37% ng populasyon. Sa naturang bilang, nakamit ng DITO ang kanilang pangako nang isagawa ang selection process bilang bagong telco player.

Gayunman, malayo ang naturang bilang sa tinatayang mahigit 16,000 cell sites ng PLDT at Globe.

“So, therefore they will take a long time to catch up, even in remote areas because it’s not easy to roll out a network in no time,” ayon kay Horn.

“I would not be too concerned about DITO because we will be always ahead of our network. We will not stop working every day. We are benchmarking ourselves on a daily basis and we want to step forward and we want to lead the industry from a performance perspective. We are not done by no means,” patuloy niya.

Sa patuloy na pagpapalakas, sinabing itinaas ng PLDT sa P92 bilyon ang kanilang capital expenditure ngayong 2021 mula sa dating P88 bilyon.

Ang naturang pondo ay gagamitin para sa roll out ng 5G sa 3,000 base transceiver stations (BTS), mahigit 4,000 4G BTS, sa 1.7 million fiber sa home ports, at 125,000 kilometers ng fiber.

“We will continue to push, I think this is the best defense to whoever wants to challenge us,” sabi ni Horn.

Sa kabila ng kompiyansa, sinabi ni PLDT chief revenue officer Alfredo Panlilio na, “We view competition always a threat.”

“We want to monitor what they’re doing and we will act accordingly. But for them to compete really hard with us they have to have a network that’s really working on the ground. We don’t belittle any competition,” ani Panlilio. — FRJ, GMA News