Senator Grace Poe on Wednesday challenged Dito Telecommunity Corp. to show its goodwill and commitment by providing service to unserved and underserved areas.
“By strategically fulfilling its commitment to meet the said number of barangays mostly in the NCR area where it’s the easiest way to go about it, Dito is literally giving us the bare minimum of what it committed to do,” Poe said.
Poe, head of the Senate public services committee, earlier enumerated the commitments Dito made to the government that will serve as a basis of its franchise renewal that will expire in 2023. These include its ability to provide a minimum standard of 27 mbps speed for internet connection in its first year, and should cover 37 percent of the population.
Senators have also raised concerns on Dito’s partnership with China Telecoms, especially on account of China’s law requiring all its subjects to report to the Chinese government any information it asks of them.
Senator Risa Hontiveros says under Chinese law, a Chinese corporation is obliged to cooperate in intelligence-gathering efforts.
Hontiveros has also expressed alarm over CreatorTech’s new study that reveals, among other things, that “ChinaTel reports directly to the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and that ChinaTel had close ties with China’s Armed Forces.”
“So after they show that they are able to honor their commitments and provide for all of those, then that will be a basis for us to determine if they’re really eligible for another 25 years,” Poe said.
“Dito will actually do a test run and said they were able to cover thousands of barangays, so we would actually want to go to one of those barangays and see if there’s been a marked improvement in their connection.”
“We can always see the numbers, but unless you’re actually the end user and experience how it performs, you can’t really vouch for it.”
At the last Senate hearing, Poe questioned Dito for rolling out services mainly in the NCR instead of the barangays in unserved and underserved areas.
“Time and again, I have raised concerns regarding China-owned Dito telco’s intrusion in the country. The revelations in CreatorTech’s new study are not surprising, given that many of our own experts have already flagged national security issues,” Hontiveros said.
She said she has repeatedly warned that “ChinaTel, which has a 40-percent stake in Dito, is 100-pwercent owned by the People’s Republic of China” and that “CreatorTech also thought it necessary to articulate” this warning.
Hontiveros’ warnings were based on a telecommunications study released last month by Creator Tech, an Asia- Pacific consulting firm based in Australia.
“A Study of The Proposed New Telecommunications Operator In The Philippines: Critical Success Factors and Likely Risks,” raised serious concern on national security and on the selection and impending operation of Dito Telecommunity-China Telecom as the country’s third telco player.
When it won the bidding to be the country’s third telco in 2018, Dito, formerly Mislatel, submitted a form that includes a list of 7,425 barangays it has committed to serve in its first year of application. “We are very excited for a third telco to come in, but we are here to safeguard the commitments it made to the government for the benefit of our people,” Poe said.
Senators earlier fought for the national broadband budget to be increased from P900 million to P5.9 billion to cover more areas that lack access to a reliable internet. With this amount, DICT has committed to provide a national broadband backbone for areas like the NCR, Cebu, Davao and even Palawan and Aurora.
Senator Christopher Go has expressed his support for the grant of a legislative franchise to Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company or DITO Telecommunity.
During a Senate hearing conducted by the Committee on Public Services, Go said DITO could be of great help in bolstering the telecommunications and internet services in the country, adding that such services “are needed more than ever.”
But he asked DITO and its management to meet their targets and fulfill its promises to the nation.
“I, however, reiterate to the leadership of DITO to ensure that the grant of a legislative franchise is not the end of its journey; rather, it is only the beginning,” Go said.
Earlier, Go expressed his support to President Rodrigo Duterte’s call to telecommunications companies to improve their services for Filipino consumers.
Poe said that by strategically fulfilling its commitment to the barangays mostly in the NCR area where it’s the easiest way to go about it, Dito was literally giving the bare minimum of what it committed to do.
“We are very excited for a third telco to come in, but we are here to safeguard the commitments it made to the government for the benefit of our people,” Poe said.