DITO breaks into B2B segment with new unit

Recognizing the need for tighter competition to boost services to customers, DITO Telecommunity Corp. has ventured into the business-to-business segment of the telecommunications space with a new unit.

DITO CEO Ernesto Alberto announced at a press conference on Tuesday that DITO Business will serve the underserved micro, small, and medium enterprise sectors.

Alberto said the growth of the company's new business will bank on the nearly one million active and operating enterprises, which will be mobilized to ensure that small other businesses will be supported through its innovative products.

Alberto said that from one million subscribers in June 2021, "DITO now enjoys the support of more than nine million SIM -SIM-registered subscribers."

"DITO has now successfully built over 7,000 base stations, covering over 830 cities and municipalities and exceeding 80 percent of our population network coverage. Given this, we are confidently on track to achieve the fifth and final year hurdle of 84% on schedule in 2024," Alberto said.

Targets set

Meanwhile, DITO chief administrative officer Adel Tamano disclosed that the company will formally launch its enterprise plans by the first quarter of 2024.

"Choosing DITO Business means choosing a standalone 5G network architecture that is independent of existing legacy infrastructures. This will future-proof your business—we are the only telco in the country that can legitimately claim this," Tamano said.

"Only DITO Business standalone 5G can unleash the full potential of 5G, offering enhanced speed, lower latency, and the ability to connect a massive number of devices simultaneously," the DITO official said.

DITO's parent company recently signed a $3.9 billion loan 15-year long-term project finance facility to bankroll its network expansion and improvement.

Particularly, the additional budget will be used to extinguish short-term bridge loan facilities totaling $1.3 billion with the balance to pay contractors and fund the continuing network rollout of DITO Telecommunity.

DITO CME, in its report, also described the facility as among the largest long-term debts arranged and syndicated by a group of multinational banks for a Philippine corporation.

Likewise, the company said that the long-term debt will enable the telco company to be "more confident in achieving its business plan targets at the soonest possible time."