Dito Tel wants 300,000 home Wi-Fi subscribers by 2025
Telco challenger, Dito Telecommunity Corp. (Dito Tel) wants to hit at least 300,000 subscribers for its home Wi-Fi service by next year after launching its 5G network aimed at attracting more consumers from the residential segment.
Evelyn Jimenez, Dito Tel chief revenue officer, told reporters on Friday that they currently have 100,000 postpaid and prepaid home Wi-Fi subscribers.
“Our target for the year is 150,000 [subscribers], and then for next year, we really want to probably more than double that,” Jimenez said. “It really depends on how the market will respond.”
The company led by Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy last week launched Dito Home WowFi, the country’s first 5G “RedCap” internet product for residential users.
More affordable
RedCap is short for “reduced capacity,” as it does not offer the full 5G features and uses “less complex” hardware to make the service more affordable. This is typically used by customers who consume less data, such as residential users versus industrial users.
Huawei Technologies, Dito Tel’s official partner in launching the new Wi-Fi service, said the product “provides all the benefits of 5G, such as low latency, high peak data rate, maximum capacity, without the need for high bandwidth.”
The 5G technology’s download rates are 100 times faster than 4G at 10 Gigabits per second. Dito Tel currently has 2,000 cell sites for its 5G service across major areas in the country, such as Metro Manila and Metro Cebu.
According to Jimenez, more than six million households within their service area still do not have access to the internet, and they aim to reach these customers through Home WowFi.
“We’re trying to take a look at how many [households] we can really reach,” she said, adding that each Wi-Fi router could accommodate up to 40 devices. “We’re going to expand to more cities as we roll out [the service].”
Technical audit
Dito Tel has passed its fifth technical audit, its commitment to the government since securing a franchise to operate in 2019 to become the country’s third major telco player.
In September, the National Telecommunications Commission said Dito Tel had recorded a national population coverage of 86.30 percent, exceeding the 84.01 percent minimum requirement.
As for the minimum average broadband speed, Dito Tel registered 92.87 Megabits per second (Mbps) and 597.70 Mbps for its 4G and 5G sites, respectively. Both are above the company’s 55-Mbps commitment. Earlier, Dito Tel announced plans to double its revenues to around P22 billion this year through aggressive subscriber acquisition.
Parent firm Dito CME Holdings Corp. saw its net loss in the first half of the year balloon by nearly ninefold to P28.18 billion from P3.43 billion a year ago as expenses swelled. Revenues, meanwhile, surged by 54 percent to P7.66 billion, driven mainly by Dito Tel.
