Dito Telecommunity gets 25-year-franchise with Duterte's signature

President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law Republic Act 11537 granting Dito Telecommunity Corp.a new franchise less than two years before its old franchise under its former name Mislatel expires on April 24, 2023.

Dito is a joint venture of Davao City-based businessman Dennis Uy's Udenna Corp., Udenna's subsidiary Chelsea Logistics Holdings Inc., and Chinese state-owned China Telecoms, Corp.

With its franchise , Dito is mandated “to operate and maintain all its stations, lines, cables, systems and equipment for the transmission and reception of messages, signals and pulses in a satisfactory manner at all times.”

“On behalf of Dito Telecommunity Corporation, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dennis A. Uy, Udenna Corporation, China Telecom, and our shareholders and partners, we would like to express our gratitude to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte for signing into law RA 11537, which renews for another 25 years the franchise granted to Dito,” Dito chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said in a statement.

“We equally would like to thank the esteemed members of the Senate and House of Representatives who recognized the importance of providing the Filipino people with affordable, fast, and reliable connectivity that they truly deserve,” he added.

The law obliges Dito to improve and extend its services in areas not yet served and in hazard and typhoon-prone areas as determined by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council or its legal successor, in coordination with the National Telecommunications Commission.

The 25-year franchise will be revoked if Dito fails to operate continuously for two years.

The franchise also requires the company to submit an annual report to Congress on its rollout, development, operation and/or expansion of businesses, audited financial statements, among others.

Failure to submit such a report will mean a P500 fine per working day of noncompliance—an amount which will be increased to P1 million per working day of non-compliance once the same policy is implemented on other telecommunication franchise grantee.

“As members of the Senate and Congress have mentioned in the hearings, the grant of a franchise is not a privilege. It is a commitment, a commitment that we in Dito take seriously,” Tamano said.

Dito on May 17 launched commercial services in the National Capital Region or two months after it launched commercial services in pilot areas in Visayas and Mindanao.

The company said that its services were available in 100 cities and municipalities across the nation covering 29 million Filipinos, and that it expects to generate one million subscribers by the end of the year.

“Dito was born out of a spirit of nation-building. The rationale for a third telco was to serve the underserved, to provide Filipinos with a better option and a wiser choice, and to be a partner in nation-building. We in Dito all knew from the beginning that our mandate is to serve, and we are here for the long haul for the Filipino,” Tamano said.

“With the trust placed on Dito, we reiterate that we are here to serve, to do whatever it takes, to do whatever ‘diskarte’ that we need to embrace, and to deliver our promise of weaving Filipino communities together, wherever they may be, with stronger connectivity,” he said.—NB/AOL, GMA News