NEW major telecommunications player Dito Telecommunity Corp. has forged deals with businessman Luis “Chavit” C. Singson’s LCS Holdings, Inc. and ABS-CBN Corp.’s Sky Cable Corp. covering the use of the two companies’ infrastructure assets.
In a statement yesterday, the China-backed firm said it has signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with LCS for the rollout of shareable telecommunications towers in key areas around the country.
LCS and Dito (formerly Mislatel) had both joined the government’s bidding for a new major telco player last year. Mr. Singson said despite losing to Dito, the company is “still very passionate in fulfilling its commitment to the public in improving the quality of telecommunication services.”
“Together with our partners, we will go full blast on manufacturing and rolling out common towers and other telecommunication infrastructure in the country,” the LCS chairman was quoted as saying in the statement.
For its partnership with SkyCable, Dito is seeking to use the company’s unused fiber optic cables located in Metro Manila. While fiber optic cables are used by television networks to transmit cable television signals, telcos may use the same asset to transmit phone signals and internet.
“These two deals allow Dito to tap reliable local partners and their existing telecommunication infrastructure assets to support our network rollout, without having to build everything from scratch,” Dito Chief Administrative Officer Adel A. Tamano said in the statement.
Dito is scheduled to launch its services in the second quarter of 2020, with a government commitment to deliver a minimum broadband speed of 27 Megabits per second (Mbps) to 37.03% of the national population by July.
“We are serious in our commitment and will be breaking ground within the next few days for the first of many cellular sites for Dito Telecommunications in cooperation with the LCS Group,” Mr. Tamano said.
Dito is owned and controlled by Dennis A. Uy’s Udenna Corp. and Chelsea Logistics and Infrastructure Holdings Corp., and China Telecommunications Corp.
The government is hoping the entry of Dito will bring faster and cheaper telecommunications services for consumers. — Denise A. Valdez
