Amid efforts to be known as instrumental in improving the telecommunications service in the Philippines, a top executive admitted that Dito Telecommunity’s services are “not superior” to major players Globe Telecom Inc. and Smart Telecommunications.
This admission came two months after DITO, owned by Dennis Uy and China Telecom, was launched in the country.
DITO chief technology officer Rodolfo Santiago said Monday they needed to improve connectivity speeds in areas that are hard to reach and make their SIM cards work fully with more mobile phones.
“Medyo challenging nga ‘yun para sa amin kasi nga, we have established a new technology. We don’t have 2G or 3G anymore. Yung mga luma na, still using 2G and 3G, mukhang talagang hindi siya puwede for our services,” Santiago said during the media briefing to mark DITO’s launch of its services in Metro Manila.
“This also includes older generation phones, or those that use keypads rather than touch screens. Another pain point is the compatibility of voice over LTE services which the network offers for video calls which operate on voice call technology, not needing the internet or online messaging apps,” he said.
“There are phones that cannot utilize 100 percent of the services of DITO,” Santiago said, noting that varying standards used by gadget makers could cause “very small technical issues” which may affect user experience.
“To be honest, in some areas that we have some challenge in terms of our rollout, we may not be superior to the incumbents,” said Santiago.
Meanwhile, DITO chief executive Dennis Uy said the third major telecom player is now accessible in 100 towns and cities and gained 500,000 subscribers in its first two months of operations.
DITO chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said 5G connectivity is not yet available, but will be coming soon along with postpaid plans.
Tamano also admitted that their services are “not yet perfect,” while Santiago said there are some “pockets” or areas where connectivity remains weak.
DITO said it built over 3,000 cell towers and would further expand coverage to meet its commitment to provide internet speeds of at least 55 megabits per second to more than half of the population by July this year.
The company promised to deliver connections at an average of 27 Mbps or faster in its first year, covering 37 percent of Filipinos.