Dennis Uy Is Out, Eric Alberto Is In as Dito Tel CEO and President

Dito Telecommunity Corp. has a new president and CEO effective Wednesday (October 11) and it’s Ernesto “Eric” R. Alberto. He’s moving over from parent company Dito CME Holdings Corp., where he held the same position. 

That means Alberto is replacing Dennis Uy, who will retain his position as chairman of Dito Telecommunity. 

Meanwhile, taking over as acting president of Dito CME is COO Donald Patrick L. Lim.

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“Eric’s wealth of experience in senior capacities in the banking and telecoms sectors spanning several decades, will be very valuable in his new role as Dito Tel CEO,” Uy said in a statement. “His appointment comes at an opportune time as we continue to maintain the Company on a high-growth trajectory.”

The shift in Dito’s leadership mirrors what happened in 2020, when Uy stepped down as Dito CME president but retained the titles of CEO and chairmans of the board.

Who is Eric Alberto

Alberto has worked in various industries, including banking and finance and telecommunications. Prior to him joining Dito in 2020, he was executive vice president and chief revenue officer of PLDT who many people thought would succeed Manny Pangilinan as CEO. He retired in 2019 and joined the board of Dito as an independent director after the customary one year non-compete clause lapsed.

Before joining PLDT in 2003 Alberto worked at Citibank.

In a statement, Uy said that, with Alberto’s appointment coupled with the recent capital raise, Dito is on the right track to drive further growth into the company. 

“With the recent equity infusions at the Dito CME level and Dito Tel’s signing of the $3.9 billion long- term project finance facility, we have further confidence in Dito CME and Dito Tel achieving their business plan targets at the soonest possible time,” Uy said. 

Dito Telecommunity, the country’s third telco, announced that it signed a $3.9-billion long-term project finance facility to bankroll its network expansion and to refinance some of its debts. Its 15-year project finance facility is touted to be “one of the largest long-term debt arranged and syndicated by a group of multinational banks for a Philippine corporation.”

Dito is beefing up its network to support both its mobile and fixed wireless services, which Dito claims to have gained traction. As of August, Dito’s average daily activations increased by 15 percent since the government required end users to register their SIMs.  

Aside from consumers and households, Dito is gunning to penetrate the enterprise segment, targeting to increase its revenue contribution to 18 percent in the next three years. 

Dito has committed to spending P257 billion over a five-year period from 2020 to build its initial network and provide users with at least 55 Mbps of speed. Part of that commitment is to also cover 84 percent of the entire Philippine population. 

Dito recently passed its fourth technical audit, having satisfied the government with its speed and coverage commitments, recording an average broadband speed of 74.97 Mbps and 639.32 Mbps for all 4G and 5G sites, respectively, which covers 80.65 percent of the population.  

For its fourth year, Dito committed to provide a minimum average broadband speed of 55 Mbps covering 80.01 percent of the population of the Philippines.