COVID-19 outbreak affecting rollout of DITO cell towers

February 26, 2020

The outbreak of  the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in China has affected rollout of cellular towers of DITO Telecommunity Corp., its executives said Wednesday. 

“Hubei province of China is one of the manufacturing hubs of China. The impact on our rollout are steel or tower components and fiber cable,” said Rodolfo Santiago, DITO  chief technology officer. 

“But our vendors are confident since they have manufacturing plants in other countries they would request their subsidiaries doing the rollout in other countries to prioritize the supply in the Philippines,” he added. 

“We are sourcing from other countries. Our vendors Huawei, ZTE, and Nokia. … they have projects in other parts of the world that may not require a commitment such as ours,” Santiago said. 

Information and Communications Technology Secretary Gregorio Honasan II warned that DITO may lose its Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity  and radio frequencies if the company fails to meet its commitment.

The agency is set to audit DITO in July if they rolled out 1,600 cell sites that can cover 37 percent of the population with 27 megabits per second speed. 

As of February,  DITO has 600 cell sites nationwide.

Adel Tamayo, DITO chief administrative officer said, “We  will find ways to mitigate all the effects of the situation so that our rollout will not be delayed. We are going to stick to our timeline.” 

He said the company was on track to meet the March 2021 commercial rollout as set by the National Telecommunications Commission under its certificate of public convenience and necessity. 

By September, DITO would conduct pre-commercial triasl to test the stability of its network. DITO pledged to invest P257 billion over a five-year period, including P150 billion in its first year of operations. DMS