DITO Telecommunity Corp., the joint venture of Udenna Corp. and China Telecom, said Thursday it signed agreements with Sky Cable Corp. and LCS Holdings Inc. of Narvacan, Ilocos Sur Mayor Chavit Singson in preparation for the rollout of its telecom services.
It said the deal with Sky Cable would involve the utilization of the unused fiber-optic cables of the cable TV provider within Metro Manila while the agreement with LCS Group would be for the lease of common towers that the latter would put up in key areas.
“These two deals allow DITO to tap reliable local partners and their existing telecommunication infrastructure assets to support our network rollout, without having to build everything from scratch; done to ensure that we soon deliver on our promise of faster, more affordable, and most importantly secure internet connectivity for our countrymen,” DITO chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said.
“We are serious in our commitment and will be breaking ground within the next few days for the first of many cellular sites for DITO Telecommunications in cooperation with the LCS Group,” he said.
Aaron Tan, chief executive for information communication and technology of LCS Group, said the signing of the agreement signified the beginning of many other partnerships to service the country.
“We also look forward to working with the other mobile network operators and corporations who may be interested to co-locate at our strategic sites,” Tan said.
DITO Telecommunity plans to start its commercial operations by the end of the year or first quarter of 2020 after it received a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the National Telecommunications Commission in July to operate as the third major telco.
Formerly known as Mislatel, DITO committed to invest P257 billion over a five-year period, including P150 billion in its first year of operations.
The group also vowed to offer 27 megabits per second of internet speed in its first year and 55 mbps in five years.
The company plans to cover 84 percent of the population in five years and 34 percent in its first year of operation.