MANILA - DITO Telecommunity is now present in 100 cities and municipalities all over the Philippines and already has around half a million subscribers, officials of the telco said during the launch of its services in the National Capital Region on Monday.

The Dennis Uy-led telco said that while the current number of subscribers is still small relative to their goal of garnering 30 percent market share, the new telco is aiming to get up to 1.75 million subscribers by the end of the year.

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“Remember, half a million subscribers only covers 54 cities and municipalities. We expect, with the addition of the 46 to more than 100 cities and municipalities, we expect this will drastically increase,” said DITO chief technology officer Rodolfo Santiago.

DITO chief administrative officer Adel Tamano also said they also expect to at least maintain the pace of their first two months of roll out. The company began offering services commercially in March.

"Sustainable yan, and of course you have to look into the fact that the market we opened in, aminado naman tayo na NCR is the bigger market,” Tamano said.

The company meanwhile is on course to hit its target population coverage and minimum service speed, Santiago added. DITO now has over 3,000 cell towers and is building another 1,500 to meet its 2022 commitments. DITO expects to meet its second-year commitment of 51 percent population coverage in July this year.

DITO officials also denied reports that the company was no longer meeting its promised download speeds in the areas it operates.

“That’s not true,” Tamano said.

Santiago meanwhile said that those who report that DITO download speeds fall below the HCLOS, or highest committed level of service, were likely in areas that were no longer covered by DITO’s services.

“Outside of this area, the HCLOS says that it’s no longer covered even though there’s still a signal,” Santiago said.

“Pag nakita mo kasi na 1 bar most of the time that is already lower than the minimum signal strength and should be outside our network coverage,” he added.

Santiago however also said that there were areas in Metro Manila that were still undergoing "optimization."

Tamano said DITO has so far spent P150 billion in capex to build its network and has committed up to P270 billion in 5 years to roll out services.

DITO CME Holdings Corp, the holding firm for the telco, closed at P8.10 per share on Monday, down 9.9 percent.

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