Exec admits Dito services ‘inferior’ to Smart, Globe
AMID efforts to be known as instrumental in improving the telecommunications service in the Philippines, a top official virtually admitted that Dito Telecommunity’s services are inferior to Globe Telecom and Smart Telecommunications.
This admission came two months after Dito, owned by Dennis Uy, was launched in the country.
Dito chief technology officer Rodolfo Santiago bared on Monday that they need to improve connectivity speeds in areas that are hard to reach and make their SIM cards work fully with more mobile phones.
“Medyo challenging nga ‘yun para sa amin kasi nga we have established a new technology, we don’t have 2G or 3G anymore. ‘Yung mga luma na still using 2G and 3G, mukhang talagang hindi siya puwede for our services,” Santiago said during the media briefing to mark Dito’s launch of its services in Metro Manila.
“This also includes older generation phones, or those that use keypads rather than touch screens. Another pain point is the compatibility of voice over LTE (VoLTE) services which the network offers for video calls which operate on voice call technology, not needing the internet or online messaging apps.
“There are phones that cannot utilize 100% of the services of Dito,” Santiago added, noting that varying standards used by gadget makers could cause “very small technical issues” which may affect user experience.
“To be honest, in some areas that we have some challenge in terms of our rollout, we may not be superior to the incumbents,” added Santiago.
Meanwhile, Dito chief executive officer Dennis Uy said the third telco player is now accessible in 100 towns and cities in the country and has gained 500,000 subscribers in its first two months of operations.
5G connectivity is not yet available, but will be coming soon along with postpaid plans, Dito chief administrative officer Adel Tamano added.
Tamano admitted that their services are “not yet perfect,” while Santiago noted that there are some “pockets” or areas where connectivity remains weak.
Dito says it has built over 3,000 cell towers and will further expand coverage to meet its commitment to provide internet speeds of at least 55 megabits per second (Mbps) to more than half of the population by July this year.
Dito promised to deliver connections at an average of 27 Mbps or faster on its first year, covering 37% of Filipinos.
