Dito goes full speed with friendly user test

MANILA, Philippines — Third telco player Dito Telecommunity Corp. is going full speed with its friendly user test in preparation for its commercial launch by March next year.

Dito Telecommunity chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said the company has expanded the first wave of friendly user test for its employees and selected partners as part of its ongoing roll-out and preparation for the upcoming launch.

Tamano said the program has been in place in controlled environments since last March when Dito made its first phone and video calls.

It has since expanded when the series of 5G phone and video calls were made last October.

Through the exercise, Tamano said Dito hopes to ensure that come March 2021, it will be as close as it can to make real on its commitment of providing world-class connectivity.

“We in Dito know fully well that during this period, there will still be issues that need to be fixed and adjustments to be made,” he said.

Tamano said the current friendly user test, as mandated in the company’s certificate of public convenience and necessity, is running in selected areas of NCR, Visayas and Mindanao.

“We have been receiving requests from people very much interested to be part of the test. However, in as much as we are excited to make the much-awaited Dito service available to everyone, the qualified participants of the first wave of the test have long been preselected based on a number of criteria and are now tasked to run the network through its paces,” he said.

Dito in September said it has completed the number of towers required to meet its first year coverage requirement, finishing the construction of 1,532 towers by then.

By Jan. 7 next year, Dito will undergo a technical audit, wherein the government will check their capacity to deliver on their first year commitments of covering 37 percent of the population and provide 27 mbps minimum average internet speed.