Telco DITO ending 2021 with over P2-billion revenue — Tamano
By Arjay L. Balinbin, Senior Reporter
DITO Telecommunity Corp. announced on Monday that it had generated P2 billion in revenue as of Dec. 18, and that it expects to reach up to P2.3 billion by the end of the year.
“We already have that as of Dec. 18; we already reached our P2-billion revenue mark,” DITO Telecommunity Chief Administrative Officer Adel A. Tamano said during a virtual briefing.
“For next year, our ambitions are much bigger,” he noted. “I am not allowed to say that because we are still working on our budgets and our plans for next year.”
DITO Telecommunity has already built more than 4,000 cell towers, the company said, up from 1,300 towers it reported in February this year. The telco, which began commercial operations in March this year, said in July that it was targeting to complete 4,500 cell towers by December as part of its nationwide expansion.
“Coupled with that is our milestone of achieving the 22,000 kilometers of fiber-optic cable,” DITO Telecommunity Chief Technology Officer Rodolfo D. Santiago said at the same briefing.
DITO Telecommunity now has more than five million subscribers in more than 500 areas, according to Mr. Tamano.
The company reached 52.75% of the national population in the second technical audit results released by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) recently. Its average broadband speeds were at 89.13 megabits per second (Mbps) for fourth-generation (4G) network and 853.96 Mbps for 5G.
DITO Telecommunity has committed to cover 51.01% of the national population and render a minimum average broadband speed of 55 Mbps in its second year of operations.
If it fails, the government must recall the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and frequencies awarded to it and keep its performance bond of P25 billion.
In its first technical audit earlier this year, the NTC declared DITO Telecommunity compliant with its requirement to cover 37.03% of the country’s population and provide a minimum average broadband speed of 27 Mbps in its first year of service. R.G. Manabat & Co. conducted the technical audit.
The third telco player’s listed parent company, DITO CME Holdings Corp., is set to conduct an P8-billion stock rights offering. The rights offer period will begin at 9 a.m. on Dec. 27 and conclude at 12 p.m. on Jan. 18. The price per share has been set at P4.88.
“The proceeds from the offer will be contributed by the company as additional capital into DITO Telecommunity to support a successful commercial rollout and for general corporate purposes,” DITO CME said in a disclosure to the stock exchange on Friday last week.
DITO CME shares closed 4.78% lower at P5.18 apiece on Monday.
