Learn more about DITO, the 3rd largest telco in the Philippines!
About DITO
Dito Telecommunity Corporation (stylized as DITO), formerly known as Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company, Inc. or Mislatel is a telecommunications company in the Philippines which is also engaged in the business of multimedia and information technology.
It is a consortium of Davao businessman Dennis Uy's Udenna Corporation (through its subsidiary Dito CME Holdings Corporation), and Chinese state-owned China Telecommunications Corporation, a parent company of China Telecom.
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The consortium is known as the sole winner of the government-sanctioned bidding that would allow the consortium to become the third major telecommunications provider in the Philippines challenging the duopoly of PLDT and Globe Telecom.
Dito CME Holdings Corporation (a publicly listed firm also owned by Uy), meanwhile, has an "indirect ownership" in the telco.
Dito Telecommunity began its commercial operations on March 8, 2021. As of February 2023, Dito's total mobile subscriber base reached 13.1 million.
Dito gave out a free data allocation of 1 gigabyte for each subscriber when it hit a million customers three months after its official rollout.
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History of DITO
The Dito Telecommunity's history can be traced back to the establishment of Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company, Inc. (Mislatel), which is enacted by Congressional legislation on April 19, 1998, under Republic Act No. 8627 allowing the franchise to construct, install, establish, operate and maintain a telecommunication system throughout the Philippines.
Third major telecommunications provider bid
In 2018, it was announced that Mislatel was one of the telecommunication firms to join the government-sanctioned bidding allowing the winner to become the third major telco provider in the Philippines challenging the duopoly of PLDT and Globe.
Mislatel became a joint-consortium between Udenna Corporation, its subsidiary Chelsea Logistics, and Chinese state-owned and a parent company of China Telecom, China Telecommunications Corporation.
The consortium was finally named as the "provisional third major player" by the NTC, beating out two other firms, Sear Telecom consortium and PT&T in the bidding.
The consortium paid a ₱25.7 billion performance bond to the government as it committed to provide internet service with a speed of 200 megabits per second to more than a third of the population on its first year of operation.
Relaunch as DITO
On July 8, 2019, Mislatel was renamed as Dito Telecommunity. Dito was derived from the Filipino word for "here", which is a response to the stakeholders' question on where they plan to set up a firm that would provide a "world class service" with "here" referring to the Philippines, the country where Dito Telecommunity is based in.
On September 6, 2019, Dito announced its plans to build its own campus on an 8-hectare (20-acre) lot at Clark Global City.
In October 2019, Dito signed separate deals with Lopez-owned Sky Cable Corporation and politician Luis Chavit Singson's LCS Group. Under the deal with LCS Group, Dito will lease the shared telco towers that LCS had already build in several areas.
As of September 2020, Dito has completed 859 cell sites out of the planned 1,600 sites that will cover 37% of the population.
On February 23, 2021, Dito and PLDT signed an interconnection deal to enable subscribers from the two companies to communicate in their respective networks. Dito and Globe Telecom also signed an interconnetion deal on February 24, 2021.
ATTRACTIONS TO SEE IN MANILA
Klook.comStart of operations
The company began its commercial operations on March 8, 2021, in select 15 selected areas in Visayas and Mindanao particularly in Metro Cebu and Metro Davao. Dito decided to focus on the rollout of its mobile services first. Dito had offered the 4G LTE first before moving to 5G technology in 2021.On April 16, 2021, Dito expanded its services to select areas in Luzon provinces, initially in five provinces covering a total of 18 cities and municipalities.
On May 17, 2021, Dito service became available in Metro Manila.
On May 18, 2021, President Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11537 which renewed Dito's license for another 25 years. The law granted Dito a franchise to construct, establish, install, maintain and operate wire and/or wireless telecommunications systems in the Philippines.
As of January 15, 2023, the service is currently available in 56 out of 82 provinces in the country: 31 in Luzon, 10 in Visayas and 15 in Mindanao.
ACTIVITIES AND TOURS IN MANILA
DITO Ownership
The following stockholders of Dito Telecommunity (as of November 2020):
60%
Dito Holdings Corporation
(Udenna Corporation)
40%
China Telecommunications Corporation
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