DITO Telecommunity announced on Monday that it would release 3,000 sims to frontliners in Davao, Visayas, and Mindanao areas for its commercial launch on March 8.
DITO chief administrative officer Adel Tamano also said that the public can avail of sims via online purchase at ₱199 including load credits, or through the points of sale at ₱40 each.
However, the sims would only be available in 15 pilot areas. Metro Manila will have to wait “a few weeks.”
DITO services shall be made available starting March 8, 2021, in the following areas:
Metro Cebu
Carcar
Cebu City
Consolacion
Danao
Liloan
Mandaue
Minglanilla
Naga
San Fernando
Talisay
Metro Davao
Panabo
Tagum
Carmen
Davao City
Digos
DITO to give free 3,000 sims to frontliners in Davao, VisMin
“DITO Telecommunity has conducted a national roll-out of its network and is already ready,” the telco said.
“However, commercial activities of DITO beginning March 8 shall be in key areas in Visayas and Mindanao and will eventually make its way to the rest of the country (located within, of course, the more than 37% population coverage) in just a couple of months,” it added.
Tamano earlier said that having the telco’s commercial rollout begin in Mindanao has a “sentimental reason.”
“If you recall before DITO became DITO we were the Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company. It was actually set up to serve the underserved areas in Mindanao. We thought it fitting to start there,” Tamano said.
Meanwhile, Telecommunications giant PLDT Inc. is confident in its position in the industry ahead of DITO Telecommunity Corporation’s entry this week.
“We cannot comment on what DITO is doing, but what I can really tell you is as far as we have information in the areas DITO is launching, they cannot [get] even close on the coverage we have already,” said PLDT-Smart chief Technology and Information advisor Joachim Horn.
Earlier, DITO said they have already built 1,900 cell sites, which will cover 37% of the population. Of that number, DITO achieved its promise by conducting the selection process as a new telco player.
However, that number is far from the estimated 16,000 cell sites of PLDT and Globe.