Dito Telecommunity

DITO Telecommunity Corporation[4][5][6] (stylized as DITO; formerly known as Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company, Inc. or Mislatel),[1][2] is a telecommunications company in the Philippines which is also engaged in the business of multimedia and information technology.[7] It is a consortium of Davao businessman Dennis Uy's Udenna Corporation and its subsidiary Chelsea Logistics Corporation, and Chinese state-owned China Telecommunications Corporation, a parent company of China Telecom. 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.[8] DITO CME Holdings Corporation (a publicly-listed firm also owned by Uy), meanwhile, has an "indirect ownership" in the telco.[9]

DITO Telecommunity Corp.
FormerlyMindanao Islamic Telephone Company (1998—2019)
TypePrivate
IndustryTelecommunications
PredecessorsMindanao Islamic Telephone Company
FoundedApril 19, 1998 (1998-04-19)[1][2]
Headquarters
Udenna Tower, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Metro Manila
,
Philippines[3]
Key people
Dennis Uy (Chairman and CEO)
Ernesto R. Alberto (President)
Adel A. Tamano (Chief Administrative Officer)
Rodolfo Santiago Jr. (Chief Technology Officer)
OwnerDITO CME (35%)
Chelsea Logistics (25%)
China Telecommunications Corporation (40%)
Websitewww.dito.ph

DITO is expected to begin its commercial operations by March 8, 2021,[10] and the technical launch was on July 8, 2020. The technical launch means that the DITO network will be ready for technical audits from the NTC (National Telecommunications Commission). This is to make sure that they comply to the government-approved number to cover 37 percent of the country's population, the third telco player said through a disclosure from its sister firm, Chelsea Logistics. DITO, once named the Mislatel 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.[3][11]

History

Early years as Mislatel

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 8627 allowing the franchise to construct, install, establish, operate and maintain a telecommunication system throughout the Philippines.[1][2]

Third major telecommunications provider bid
Further information: 2018 Philippine third telecommunications provider bidding

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.[12] 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.[8][13] 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.[8]

The Senate and the House of Representatives approved the transfer of ownership of Mislatel to the latter's consortium.[14][2] In June 2019, the consortium's stakeholders completed a share-purchase agreement with Mislatel, and were then awaiting their permit to operate, tentatively by July 2019.[15][16]

Relaunch as DITO
President Rodrigo Duterte awards the company its Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity.

On July 8, 2019, Mislatel was renamed as "DITO Telecommunity".[4][5][6][17] 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.[17]

Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity of the company.

At the same date of the announcement of the company's renaming, DITO Telecommunity was granted its permit to operate after President Rodrigo Duterte awarded the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity by the National Telecommunications Commission to its chairman Dennis Uy during a ceremony at the Presidential Palace, Malacañang.[4][5][6]

On September 6, 2019, DITO announced to build its own campus on an 8-hectare lot at Clark Global City. The campus will house its own data center and it will hold DITO's operational departments, network operations center, servecall center, and regional center. It will also serve as the hub for DITO's research and development in the telecommunications space.[18]

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. While on the other hand of the deal with Sky Cable, DITO will utilize the latter's unused fiber-optic cables in Metro Manila.[19][20]

Its commercial operations by March 8, 2021 with a plan to make its first call by May 2020, set up 1,600 cell towers that will cover 37% coverage in the country and start of its technical operations by July 18, 2020, and its pre-commercial trial by September 2020, with a completion of 859 cell sites as of September 13.[21] DITO will offer 4G LTE first before moving to 5G technology in 2021.[11][3]

Ownership

The following stakeholders of DITO Telecommunity (as of February 2019):

Direct Indirect % of stake
Udenna Corporation DITO CME 35%
Chelsea Logistics Corporation DITO Holdings Corporation 25%
China Telecommunications Corporation[4][5][6] 40%

Radio frequency summary
Frequencies used by DITO Telecommunity[22]
FrequencyProtocolClass Band Number Duplex Mode
700 MHz
LTE
4G
 28 FDD
2000 MHz
LTE
4G
 34 TDD
2100 MHz
LTE
4G
 1 FDD
2500 MHz
LTE
4G
 41 TDD
3300 MHz
LTE
4G
 52 TDD
3500 MHz
NR
5G
 n78 TDD

References
  1. "Republic Act 8627". April 1998.
  2. "Congress OKs Mislatel's transfer to Dennis Uy-China Telecom group". CNN Philippines. May 23, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  3. Rivas, Ralf (20 February 2020). "DITO Telecom services available by March 2021". Rappler. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  4. "Mislatel, now DITO Telecommunity, is a Filipino-Chinese company which got a permit to operate as 3rd telco". CNN Philippines. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  5. Balinbin, Arjay L. (8 July 2019). "Mislatel to rebrand as 'DITO Telecommunity' after getting license". BusinessWorld. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  6. Parrocha, Azer (8 July 2019). "PRRD hands Mislatel Consortium permit to operate as 3rd telco". Philippine News Agency. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  7. "DITO.PH | DITO CME Holdings Corp. Company Profile & Executives - WSJ". www.wsj.com. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  8. De Guzman, Luchi (November 9, 2018). "Udenna-China Telecom wins provisional bid as 3rd telco player". CNN Philippines. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  9. Bacungan, Ian Irving (29 July 2020). "DITO Telecommunity holds the franchise of Dennis Uy's media business DITO CME". Techbeat Philippines.
  10. Marasigan, Lorenz S. (January 8, 2021). "DITO all set for month-long technical audit". Business Mirror.
  11. "DITO pushes back market rollout to March 2021". CNN Philippines. 21 February 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  12. "A quick look at the three firms that submitted bids to be third telco". The Philippine Star. 7 November 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  13. Fernandez, Butch (8 November 2018). "With 3rd player, Poe sees telecom reforms". BusinessMirror. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  14. "Senate approves Mislatel transfer of ownership to Dennis Uy, China Telecom consortium". ABS-CBN News. February 6, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  15. "Mislatel consortium finishes on step towards operation". BusinessWorld. June 14, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  16. Camus, Miguel (January 31, 2019). "Mislatel Consortium eyes permit to operate by July". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  17. "From Mislatel to DITO, why the name change?". ABS-CBN News. 9 July 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  18. Rivas, Ralf (6 September 2019). "DITO Telecom campus to rise in Clark Global City". Rappler. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  19. Marasigan, Lorenz (4 October 2019). "DITO Telecom inks deals with Chavit, SkyCable". Business Mirror. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  20. "Third telco DITO says investments to exceed $6-B plan". ABS-CBN News. 4 November 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  21. Camus, Miguel R. (2020-09-18). "Deflecting Chinese espionage fears, Uy-led DITO sets sights on 2021 start". INQUIRER.net. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  22. "3rd telco to get permit to operate by July 8 —DICT". GMA News Online. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
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