No more concessions

The third telco that promised to improve mobile internet services by breaking the incumbent duopoly had its much awaited commercial launch last week in Cebu and Davao, accompanied by statements that services in Metro Manila would follow in the coming few weeks.

This early, however, questions about the actual compliance by Dito Telecommunity with its commitments tied to its license as the third telco are being raised.

The commercial launch followed its supposed passing of its first network audit. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said Dito met its initial population coverage and minimum average internet speed commitments to the government. Results of the audit conducted by R.G. Manabat & Co. said Dito had a national population coverage of 37.48 percent and minimum average broadband speeds of 85.9 megabits per second for 4G and 507.5 Mbps for 5G—higher than Dito’s first-year commitment to serve 37 percent of the population and offer a minimum average broadband speed of 27 Mbps. After that, the broadband speed is to be accelerated to 55 Mbps by Dito’s fifth year, with a promised coverage by then of 84 percent of the population.

The NTC test was conducted for more than 30 days starting Jan. 7, 2021. It was supposed to be held in July last year, but Dito asked the NTC for an extension due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, an information and communications technology advocacy group has disputed the assessment and said there were deficiencies in Dito’s first network audit. Democracy.Net.Ph asserted in a Senate hearing last week that it reviewed the more than 800-page audit report and found that the NTC allowed the sampling of a limited number of barangays to determine if Dito met its first-year commitment.

This was not the intention when the original terms of reference were made prior to the bidding for the third major telco slot in 2018, the watchdog group pointed out. Instead of testing more than 8,800 barangays to prove that Dito indeed met its first-year promise to cover 37 percent of the Philippine population, the NTC allowed the sampling of just 2,671 barangays. The field tests also covered only 200 cell sites out of Dito’s 1,602 supposedly active sites. “We recommend [that] a sampling method should not be applied [for the next audit],” cautioned Democracy.Net.Ph cofounder Pierre Galla.

The economic difficulties and movement restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic made it hard for Dito to roll out the needed infrastructure. These were the reasons it cited when it sought—and was granted—a postponement of the audit that was originally scheduled in July 2020. It also faced other concerns such as business viability and, more crucially, national security risks arising from the 40-percent stake in the company owned by a state-run Chinese entity, China Telecom, given the Philippines’ territorial dispute with Beijing in the West Philippine Sea. As previously pointed out in an editorial in this paper, “Under Chinese law, Chinese companies are required to report to the Beijing government any information it asks of them. Compounding such fears is the controversial agreement signed by Dito and the Department of National Defense that officially allows the telco partly owned by the Chinese government to set up installations inside military camps.”

The commercial launch was surely some form of vindication for Dito’s owners, Udenna Corp. headed by Davao-based businessman and presidential friend Dennis Uy, and China Telecom, for all the obstacles the company has faced so far. However, in the interest of fairness and transparency, the NTC needs to conduct a rigorous, honest-to-goodness performance audit based on what the company is obligated to undertake. The public expects no less. Come the July 2021 audit, it is incumbent upon the NTC to be stringent in making sure that Dito has met its promises. For one, it should not allow sampling that does not represent actual coverage of the areas and basic quality of service committed by the company.

Dito has another urgent requirement to hurdle, one involving the incumbent players: It must interconnect its network with those of PLDT and Globe seamlessly. Otherwise, its subscribers will suffer. During Dito’s commercial launch, Information and Communications Secretary Gregorio Honasan said much was expected of the startup telco. The people, he stressed, are counting on its assurances of unhampered connectivity services, quality internet, and responsive service.

The NTC and Congress, which awarded Dito its franchise, should ensure that all these will come to fruition as promised, by strictly enforcing the details of the agreement with the company. No more concessions should be given in the July 2021 audit.