Converge ICT Solutions Inc. expressed interest in a deeper collaboration with DITO Telecommunity Corp. including venturing into mobile broadband services in the future.
Converge co-founder and chief executive Dennis Anthony Uy said while mobile business is not their core focus, they see synergies in teaming up with DITO.
“Maybe in the future we can do some collaboration with a marketing arrangement that’s a deeper partnership. So maybe they can sell fixed [broadband], and we can sell mobile broadband but co-branding differently,” Uy said.
“There’s a lot of things that will happen that is why I said just wait for the next chapter,” he said.
Uy’s statement came after Converge and DITO signed landmark master facilities provisioning agreement (MFPA) that will allow the two operators to share select terrestrial and submarine fiber optic cable assets.
The resource exchange arrangement will strengthen the network of both operators as it translates into expanded coverage and increased redundancy. It will also create savings from increased operational efficiencies and reduced capital expenditure requirements for both companies.
Uy said that its business would continue to be “quite strong” this year.
“I think we ended up almost close to P36 billion [ in revenues] last year,” he said. This was higher than the P33.7 billion consolidated revenues reported in 2022.
Meanwhile, DITO scaled back its 2024 capital expenditures (capex) following its aggressive nationwide network rollout last year. “Our capex guidance will be tempered a bit. It should be anywhere between P25 billion andf P30 billion,” said DITO chief executive Eric Alberto.
The company budgeted P27 billion for 2023 capex. “After we focus on the network rollout, ot is now time to focus on monetization and commercialization of the network’s investment,” Alberto said.
“Our plans now is to focus on gaining market share and focusing on commercial roll out and coming up with exciting new, differentiated products both fixed wireless broadband and mobile data,” he said.
Alberto said DITO was targeting to increase its market share to a range of 15 percent to 20 percent from the 10 percent. DITO had more than 10 million subscribers last year.
“We are confident that with our better and brand-new network, we have reasons to gain our rightful share of the market,” he said.
