DITO to launch services in Visayas, Mindanao

MANILA – Fifteen towns and cities in the Visayas and Mindanao will be the first to experience the telecommunications services of DITO Telecommunity (DITO) during its commercial rollout on March 8.

In a Laging Handa briefing on Tuesday, DITO chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said these areas include Panabo City, Tagum City, Carmen, Davao City, and Digos City in Metro Davao; and Carcar City, Cebu City, Consolacion, Danao City, Liloan, Mandaue City, Minglanilla, Naga City, San Fernando, and Talisay City in Metro Cebu.

“Ang purpose po ng initial franchise ng DITO was to serve the underserved in Mindanao. Kaya naisip po nating maganda na ang unang commercial rollout po natin ay hindi po sa Manila kundi po sa Mindanao, specifically sa Davao, at sa Visayas na rin po (The purpose of the initial franchise of DITO was to serve the underserved in Mindanao. That’s why we thought the first commercial rollout should not be in Manila but in Davao, specifically in Davao, and let’s include the Visayas),” Tamano said.

Initially, he said DITO will offer 4G mobile services to 37 percent of the country’s population with an average speed of 27 Megabits per second (Mbps), with broadband services planned for rollout next year.

He said DITO’s services is limited to 4G with plans for a 5G rollout at a later date, with no planned support for “legacy technology” such as 2G and 3G.

“Ayaw po namin magdala ng (We don’t want to bring) legacy technologies to these underserved areas—let’s bring them the technology that will really help leapfrog ‘yung mga (their) socioeconomic and social problems and issues that they have because wala silang (they don’t have) connectivity,” Tamano said.

DITO, he said, aims to bring “pure 5G technology” in the country through its partner China Telecom by next year, made possible through its planned PHP257-billion investment in five years.

“Internet of things, artificial intelligence, ito ‘yung (these are) leapfrogging technologies based sa (on) 5G that we will be bringing to this country,” Tamano said.

He touted the company’s “unprecedented” construction of 1,900 sites within two years, the first in the country’s history.

“Kung noon ‘yung dalawang telco (telecom companies) mga 300 lang every year kaya nila, nagawa natin 1,900 sites in less than two years (If in the past our two telcos were able to build 300 sites every year, we were able to build 1,900 sites in less than two years),” Tamano said.

Meanwhile, he said the company will launch in Luzon a few weeks after the initial commercial rollout in the Visayas and Mindanao.

“Nakiki-usap lang po kami sa publiko (We’re asking the public), especially for those subscribers in NCR who are very excited to try the DITO service. Konting pasensya lang po (Please give us a little more patience). In a couple of weeks, after March 8 launch, nandun na po kami sa (we will be there in the) National Capital Region,” Tamano said.

On Feb. 22, DITO officially passed its first technical audit by independent auditor R.G. Manabat and Co., showing that its network is capable of providing fast mobile data speeds at 506.5 Mbps for 5G and 85.9 Mbps for 4G.