Dito Telecommunity looked set to achieve a government-mandated deadline regarding population coverage after passing the 1 million subscriber mark a little more than three months after launching.

The Philippines’ newcomer revealed the subscriber milestone in a tweet today (16 June), moving it closer to hitting a coverage target of 51 per cent by 8 July.

In its post, Dito noted it hit the figure “just a few weeks after our National Capital Region launch“.

CTO Rodolfo Santiago last week told Manila Standard the operator was continuing to expand its network, leaving it on track to meet the minimum coverage requirement.

He added was expanding service to 23 new cities and municipalities from 12 June, taking coverage to 123 urban areas.

Operations started in 17 cities in southern Philippines during March.

The operator, a joint venture between Udenna Group and China Telecom, has a long way to go to close the gap with established rivals Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, which had 79.8 million and 73.1 million subscribers respectively at end Q1