Dito optimistic it will cover close to 10,000 barangays by end of 2020

Dito Telecommunity Corporation is optimistic that it can cover nearly 10,000 barangays before 2020 ends, prior to its expected commercial rollout next year.

During a hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Services, Dito chief technology officer Rodolfo Santiago said that the third telco player's commitment under the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) was to cover at least 7,425 barangays in its first year of operations.

"As of today, our simulation is that we have already covered 8,800 barangays.
We're confident that by the end of the year, we will be close to 10,000 barangays to be covered by our network," Santiago said.

Under the CPCN which was awarded to Dito in July 2019, it should provide a speed of 27 megabits per second to cover 37% percent of the population in its first year of operations.

Dito chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said the telco is expected to have covered 11,235 barangays by the second year of operations; 20,057 by the third; 25,596 on the fourth; and 27,851 by the fifth year.

"In the fifth year, we will go beyond our 84% requirement. Internally at Dito, we intend to hit 90% because to be very honest, we intend to serve those underserved areas," Tamano said.

Tamano earlier said DITO is planning to its commercial launch—the onboarding of subscribers in its system—“a little earlier” than March 2021. — BM, GMA News