UP prof sees Dito breaking promises with Big Tech cables under threat
MANILA, Philippines — Dito Telecommunity’s pledges of a faster and more reliable network may face a new problem after a planned underwater cable project, crucial to jumpstart the new telco player’s entry, was dropped due to cybersecurity concerns, a university professor said.
Facebook Inc. and Google reportedly scrapped plans to link the US and Hong Kong through an underwater cable, and Glen Imbang, professor at University of the Philippines, said the decision poses a problem for the Dennis Uy-led telco.
This is because the cables allow data transmission from various parts of the world and will pass through the Philippines and Taiwan. The plan was withdrawn by the Big Tech giants following concerns by the Trump administration that the cables may be used by China to collect information on Americans.
“If Dito will opt to build its own submarine cable, then it’s the rollout timeline that will be (put in peril),” Imbang said in a statement on Tuesday.
Adel Tamano, Dito’s chief administrative officer, did not reply to request for comment. Other Dito officials could not also be immediately reached.
But sought for comment, William Emmanuel Yu, network security analyst at Ateneo de Manila University, disagreed with Imbang. “I don’t think it will have an impact,” he said in a phone interview.
“It’s not even made yet and let’s assume it does not get made, there are many other cable routes already available,” Yu said. “If I were Dito, I’ll just buy from the existing ones.”
Indeed, the tech giants are not completely abandoning its linkage project, and as per a Bloomberg report last Aug. 29, have in fact submitted a new one that greatly sticks to the original plan, but excluding Hong Kong-based Pacific Light Data Communication Co., supposedly a partner on the undertaking.
It remains unclear, however, how long will the cable plan take to materialize and whether lines would be online once Dito undertakes a technical launch on January 2021 and be out in the market as originally scheduled two months after.
“I’m not saying there won’t be any problems because there might be other parts of the deal that we’re not aware of but definitely they always have the option to buy from existing (lines),” Yu said.
As it is, Dito already asked for a 6-month postponement of its technical launch, during which the government would check whether the telco firm is able to meet its mandated speed and coverage. On its first year, the Uy-chaired telco committed to deliver a minimum speed of 27 Mbps with 37% network coverage.
Shares at Dito CME Holdings Corp., poised as Dito’s public venture once in operation, closed down 0.6% to P3.33 apiece on Tuesday.
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