DITO hits 7 million subscribers almost six months behind projections

DITO CME subscribers Philippines

DITO Telecommunity, the third telco in the Philippines, recently announced that it has reached 7 million subscribers just over a year after the telco’s commercial launch. This number, however, was the goal for Q32021.

A report predicted that based on the telco’s initial growth trajectory, it would hit 7 million subscribers by the end of October 2021. However, by the end of the year, DITO had only reached 5 million subscribers, which the company thinks is still a feat.

In an end-2020 tally, WalasTech reported that Globe had 76.6 million subscribers, while PLDT (Smart) came in at a close second with 72.9 million subscribers. Later that year, Smart revealed that it had the most number of mobile data users at 39.5 million.

In a bid to compete with these two telcos, DITO announced last week that it is on the verge of achieving a population coverage percentage that would bring it closer to its goal of being the country’s number one telco provider.

In July, the telco will undergo its third annual technical audit, in which it must achieve 70% population coverage and at least 55 Mbps download speeds.

“We are in more than 500 cities and municipalities and soon will cover 70% of the population in just a few more months – finally going head-to-head against our two competitors,” said Dennis Uy, Dito’s chief executive officer.

To keep drawing subscribers, DITO earlier introduced its 5G wireless broadband kit with a one-time payment of P12,990 for the modem and SIM card. In addition to this, DITO has also unveiled two new customer experience-enhancing options: AutoPay and Advance Pay, which allow customers to schedule automatic payments and pay for their data packages up to one year in advance.

In September last year, the company faced questioning in relation to performance discrepancies between audit results and actual customer experiences. Infrawatch PH representative Terry Ridon wanted a closer look into whether DITO’s towers have been adequately tested during its second technical audit, and whether all 3,000 cell sites have been inspected.

“Another third-party report made by Ookla showed wide variances in DITO’s claimed downloads speeds and 5G, with actual tests showing slower speeds by more than 70%. These are levels of variances that are unacceptable by any standard,” Ridon said.

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