Dito Telecommunity Corp. has drawn an initial $500 million from the Bank of China to fund the first phase of its network development program with a commercial launch set for March 2021.

Adel Tamano, the chief administrative officer of Dito, said his group’s initial funding from the foreign bank will be used for land acquisition, tower construction, and the purchase of radio equipment.

With this development, Tamano said the group is on track for its “technical launch,” where the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), will test if Dito’s network is within its service level commitments.

“By July we will have our technical launch. We will have 1,600 towers set up and it is doable. There are many challenges, problems, issues, but the way we have been approaching all of these is by finding the right partners to get things done,” he said.

Currently, the company is completing 600 towers and locations for the deployment of its 4G radio equipment. On July 18, the government will evaluate the network to see if it matches the 27 Mbps minimum download speed and the 37-percent coverage that Dito committed.

Tamano added that his group will be making its very first live call in May using voice over LTE technology.

By September, the company will be rolling out pre-commercial trails to stress test the network.

“We don’t want a launch with a not-so-stable network so we’re going to do a friendly user test,” Dito Chief Technology Officer Rodolfo Santiago said.

He explained that this is a necessary step to ensure that his group will not be providing “the same service as the other telcos today.”

Dito committed to spend P150 billion in its maiden year to set up its network. The figure is both for the build and the operational costs.

But Santiago said he is bullish that the company may deliver its commitments at a lower cost.

“The way we’re doing things now, we may be saving some money, rather than spending more because the detailed design shows that we will be spending less to complete the network. I’m confident that the way things are going we might be underspending,” he said.

He added that underspending is a “positive metric” given that it will “redound to cheaper rates to the consumers.”

Dito’s five-year commitment entails a P257-billion investment that will result in an 84-percent nationwide coverage with a minimum Internet speed of 55 Mbps.