DITO Telecommunity Corp. said Thursday it is in talks with a satellite provider to roll out cellular services to “very challenging” areas in the country.
“This year, we are targeting 76 percent of the population coverage and poised to achieve 80 percent by middle of next year,” DITO chief technology officer Rodolfo Santiago said in a virtual briefing.
“The remaining 20 percent of the population would be within the areas that are really very hard to build infrastructure in. These are island municipalities. But we will [roll out infrastructure in these areas] because we need to do the 84 percent [coverage] on the fifth year [of our operations],” he said.
Santiago said the company would need an additional technology such as satellite to reach the unserved and underserved areas of the country.
He said that part of the solutions is to team up with a satellite provider. “We are in talks,” Santiago said, without identifying the party.
DITO chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said the company’s goal is “to be number one and it is not impossible.”
“I believe that we have a superior product and treat Filipinos fairly,” he said.
DITO has 10.3 million subscribers and a market share of 9 percent for 4G/5G segment.
“Every year we are investing P27 billion into the economy in terms of capex [capital exepnditure],” Tamano said.
DITO earmarked P50 billion this year to reach more Filipinos and aims to be commercially available in more than 840 areas nationwide.
Tamano said the company is confident to pass the third technical audit, with 70-percent coverage of the population in July, as part of its mandate stipulated in the certificate of public convenience and necessity issued by the National Telecommunications Commission in 2019.
