Dito Telecommunity projects to have 3 million customers by end of September

In a clarification disclosure, Dito Telecommunity [DITO 8.79 0.34%] confirmed that it currently has 2.6 million subscribers and that at its current pace of customer acquisition (~20,000 new subs per day), it expects to have 3 million customers by the end of the month.

DITO made these comments alongside news that it was investing P4 billion in an undersea cable to connect Palawan and provide redundancy for its Visayas and Mindanao loop. Like its competitors, Globe [GLO 2862.00 2.58%] and PLDT [TEL 1446.00 0.49%], DITO also plans to provide a home broadband product but instead using its 5G wireless tech to provide “fixed wireless” connections.

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DITO’s subscriber growth rate is at 7.3 million per year; at that pace, DITO would reach its goal of 30% market share in just a little over four years from now (end 2025). Since the ownership of Dito Telecommunity shares has been kept off DITO’s financial statements, DITO hasn’t been forced to provide the kind of insight into Dito Telecommunity’s business that would ordinarily allow investors to evaluate management’s progress and make informed investment decisions about DITO’s stock.

The completion of the share-swap between DITO and Dennis Uy’s private Holdco, Udenna Corp, which would transfer Udenna’s interest in its subsidiary that owns an interest in the subsidiary that owns 60% of Dito Telecommunity’s stock, will cause DITO to indirectly own and control a slight majority of Dito Telecommunity’s shares; this will force DITO to incorporate Dito Telecommunity’s financial statements into its own financial statements, and force DITO to report on Dito Telecommunity’s business, hopefully, in a way that will allow investors the chance to make those kinds of informed decisions.

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