DITO to expand network service coverage to 53 more areas in September

New major telecommunications player DITO Telecommunity Corp. is expanding further its network service coverage to 53 more areas across the country this month.

At a virtual press conference, DITO chief technology officer Rodolfo Santiago announced that so far the telco has expanded its network coverage to 233 cities and municipalities, from 15 pilot areas in the Visayas and Mindanao during its commercial launch in March.

“By September, we are ready to add 53 more. That would bring our total commercially launched cities and municipalities to 286,” Santiago said.

DITO to expand in 53 more areas in September, bringing its total network coverage areas to 286. pic.twitter.com/jkN42t6gD7

— Ted Cordero (@Ted_Cordero) September 9, 2021

DITO passed the second year audit of its service commitments. 

Citing a notice from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), DITO parent firm DITO CME Holdings said that the third telco was found to achieve a national population coverage percentage of 52.75%, while its megabits per second (Mbps) delivered are 89.13 Mbps and 853.96 Mbps for all its 4G and 5G sites, respectively.

The telco committed to deliver a national population coverage of 51.01% and minimum average broadband speed of 55 Mbps in the second year of its commitment period, as part of the issuance of its Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity in July 2019.

During the press briefing, Santiago said DITO has a total 4,384 towers under mobilization, out of which 3,094 were integrated.

He added that the telco has built 18,074 kilometers of land-based fiber optic cable.

Submarine cable

“In addition, we have 953 kilometer of domestic submarine cable,” he said.

Santiago also clarified that DITO’s fiber backbone is self-built and not  leased from existing providers.

“Earlier this year, we have already commercialized DITO domestic submarine cable Phase 1 linking Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao,” he said.

“We’re about to start the Phase 2 of that project linking Palawan from Mindoro via Coron and having another loop that would provide a redundancy to Visayas and Mindanao domestic submarine cable,” he added.

The DITO chief tech officer said that providing redundancy to the Visayas and Mindanao loop of its submarine cable will provide better service, “essentially ensuring that network faults would be minimized because of the added route that would be established for this Phase 2 of our domestic submarine cable.”

Santiago said that the Phase of DITO’s submarine cable project is expected to start between October and November, while the completion of the project is seen in the first quarter of next year.

DITO has invested around P4 billion for the Phase 1 and 2 of its submarine cable project. — RSJ, GMA News