Dito ends Smart’s streak as Philippines fastest operator

MANILA, Philippines — Industry disruptor Dito Telecommunity Inc. outpaced its competitors in the speed contest in the first quarter, showing its aggressive stance despite its young network and financial struggles.

In Opensignal’s April report, Dito beat telco giants Smart Communications Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. in the majority of the categories used to measure connectivity quality.

For the coverage period of the analysis from January to March, Dito turned in a download speed of 32 Mbps, dethroning Smart as the fastest provider in the Philippines.

“Dito has broken Smart’s impressive winning streak for download speed experience, becoming the new outright winner. Dito does so with a score of 32 Mbps and a lead of nearly 4 Mbps over Smart, while Globe is in last place,” said Opensignal principal analyst Sam Fenwick.

Likewise, Dito emerged as the fastest operator for 5G, averaging 302.9 Mbps as against Smart’s 143.3 Mbps. Fenwick said that Dito won in 5G even though this was the first time the telco was included in the category.

Meanwhile, Smart maintained its lead on 5G coverage, scoring 1.4 on a 10-point scale, making it the only Philippine operator that tallied a score of above a point.

Still, Fenwick flagged the low scores recorded by Dito, Globe and Smart, saying the Philippines has a lot of catching up to do to improve its 5G network.

“However, all three operators’ scores imply that 5G rollout in the Philippines is still at relatively early stages partly due to its challenging geography as an archipelago of 7,641 islands,” Fenwick said.

Opensignal also opened a new category assessing the reliability experience of subscribers, and it recognized Dito as the first operator to win from the Philippines. Dito scored 835 out of 1,000 to outperform Smart’s 771 and Globe’s 748.

Opensignal evaluates the reliability experience by measuring the ability of users to do basic tasks on an operator’s network. It covers, among others, signal availability and data connectivity to see whether a provider is able to extend the quality needed to perform online functions.

For 2024, Dito is focused on capturing a market share of 20 percent, or one in five Filipinos, as it shifts priority from infrastructure buildup to subscriber acquisition.

However, Dito’s parent Dito CME Holdings Corp. has yet to come out of the woods financially, bleeding P5.73 billion in the nine months to September 2023 due to capital burn as a result of its network expansion.