Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7) — Third telco player DITO Telecommunity said its subscriber base could have been “double” now if only the tussle over interconnection woes were resolved.
Adel Tamano, DITO chief administrative officer, said that Philippine Competition Commission’s (PCC) proceedings about the issue remain “ongoing,” a year after the company filed a case against Globe Telecom and PLDT (Smart Communications) over alleged anti-competitive practices that bar DITO customers to interconnect with the other networks.
READ: Interconnection woes: DITO accuses Globe, Smart of ‘abusing’ dominant positions
“The fact that it is ongoing shows that it has merit. We are confident to see more movement about that,” Tamano said during a chat with media late last week.
Globe and Smart have dismissed DITO’s case as “baseless,” as they refuted claims on anti-competitive practices. Ayala-led Globe also asked the National Telecommunications Commission to require the third telco firm to pay a penalty fee of ₱622 million for allegedly violating their interconnection deal.
“For context, it took 20 years before Globe and Smart interconnected, it took President [Fidel] Ramos issuing an executive order, forcing them to interconnect… So I am not surprised as a lawyer coming into this field, I know they will not make it easy for us to interconnect,” Tamano said.
Late President Fidel V. Ramos in 1993 issued Executive Order No. 59 requiring public telecommunications carriers to interconnect, allowing subscribers to send messages and make calls from one network to another.
Rodolfo Santiago, DITO Telecommunity chief technology officer, said the failure rate when calling other networks stands between 75% and 80%, far from the ideal 1%.
The official said that due to this, the company cannot boost its product portfolio as the interconnection issue leads to “a lot of dissatisfaction,” subsequently translating to opportunity losses.
Tamano said that if DITO Telecommunity realizes interconnection, the group can challenge Globe and Smart head-on.
“You will see our true numbers,” he added.
Currently, DITO Telecommunity has nearly 8 million subscribers, down from 14 million from end-2022 due to the implementation of the SIM registration.
Evelyn Jimenez, DITO Telecommunity chief commercial officer, said the company was not worried about the slash in subscriber base as “almost 100% of our revenue-generating subscribers have registered.”
Jimenez also expressed confidence about the continuous “spike” in subscriber uptake.
