DITO SIM: Setup, APN Settings, Internet Speed Test, Promo

DITO Telecommunity recently announced the expansion of its network coverage in Central and South Luzon. Since I reside in Bacoor, Cavite, one of the areas serviceable by DITO, I was able to purchase a SIM and test its services. If you’re curious about how DITO performs, continue reading our article below.

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DITO SIM purchase

The DITO SIM is available in DITO Online Stores, DITO Experience Stores, Lazada, and retail partner stores. I decided to go for Lazada, and I’m glad to see that they have also updated their delivery to the new serviceable areas. DITO’s listing of SIM cards is categorized based on devices. We’re planning to use it on our Xiaomi phone, which is not on the list. Based on the experiences of early customers, it shouldn’t be an issue as long as the smartphone supports 4G LTE and VoLTE. I chose the one listed as “for Huawei,” which we’re going to use on our Xiaomi smartphone. I placed the order on May 1 and got the SIM card the next day. That was fast!

Just like the SIM cards of other telcos, the DITO SIM cards come pre-cut to accommodate different sizes, but the DITO package comes with a free metal SIM ejector designed after the letter D in DITO. In addition, the SIM cards are 5G-ready and use the 0991 prefix.

DITO SIM Setup

The DITO SIM’s mobile data won’t work right away after you insert it into your phone. You will need to register the SIM card by making your first SMS or call. Afterward, you’ll receive an SMS telling you to download the DITO app (you might want to use WiFi here). A 6-digit PIN as the initial password is also included to get you started.

“Welcome DITO! Manage your account by downloading the DITO App: https://bit.ly/getDITOApp. Initial password: XXXXXX. View our Privacy Statement and T&C upon login.”

Return to your DITO app and continue with the registration by following the instructions. Once you’re done, you’ll be able to access the dashboard and another SMS confirming the activation.

“Your DITO # 0991XXXXXXX is now active! Enjoy your 25GB High Speed Data promo valid until DD.MM.2021 (TIME). Log in to your DITO App to monitor your usage.”

DITO APN Settings

Even after activation, we noticed that I still can’t connect to the internet. That’s when I discovered that we need to input the APN settings manually (Go to Settings and SIM card). I’m not sure if it’s an issue on our phone or because I’m using a SIM card that’s pre-configured for Huawei devices. In this case, I used the following:

Name: DITO Internet
APN: internet.dito.ph

I also had to manually activate the VoLTE on our Xiaomi device by dialing ##86583##. After that, we’re also able to make calls.

DITO App Dashboard

The app has a similar approach to GOMO 40‘s app but with more features. It will provide you all the information you need from your number load, expiry, available data, available calls, and available SMS.

There’s also a dedicated button for buying a promo, buying a load, sharing a load, load history, list of network coverage, share history, the option to chat with customer service. You can also customize the buttons in the dashboard, similar to how you can customize the buttons in the dropdown menu on Android.

Buying DITO Promo and Load

Buying a DITO promo is easy as you can access it straight from the app. No need to send SMS codes to certain numbers. So far, DITO only has one promo, which offers 25GB of data with unlimited texts to all networks, unlimited DITO-to-DITO calls, and 300 minutes of calls to other networks. It costs PHP 199 (deducted from your current load) and valid for 30 days.

When purchasing load, you’re presented with 6 denominations, but you can also manually input the load amount. I’m glad to see that I can purchase a load using a credit or debit card, GCash, GrabPay, or WeChat Pay.

As for sharing your DITO load to another DITO number, there’s a minimum of PHP 5 and a maximum of PHP 1,000 per transaction. There’s also a maximum of 5 successful Share load transactions per day, and you must have a maintaining load balance of PHP 1.

DITO Internet Speed Test

For the speed test, I used the Speedtest.net app and Fast app. Based on my experience, I’m getting an average speed of over 60 Mbps and upload speeds ranging from 6 Mbps to 10 Mbps here in Bacoor, which is not bad.

Take note that you’ll get the best speeds if your phone detects a 4G+ signal, so you might want to move close to a window or go higher if you’re in a multi-story house.

Verdict

We only had the DITO SIM for a full day, but I already like its performance, considering it’s still on 4G LTE. Add to that the affordable data, attractive inclusions, and ease of payment. It’s enticing. I’m expecting better performance when they roll out 5G. However, there’s this concern of how it will perform in the long run when they get more subscribers, especially in the NCR. Will they also suffer from congestion? Will the performance improve or suffer? Only time will tell.