Key Milestone: Major Strategic Migration Project Fully Completed for DITO's Self-built DCs in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines, Aug. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- DITO, one of the three major telecommunications operators in the Philippines, has made significant strides in 5G buildouts in recent years. DITO began migrating services to its self-built DCs in 2022 to improve its communication services. This migration project took two years and consisted of two phases. The project has taken the digital economy infrastructure in the Philippines to the next level.

1. DITO's large-scale migration of 5G SA services with zero service interruption demonstrates its successful technical and project management experience.

DITO faced substantial challenges in this project. The migration of 5G SA services to DITO's self-built DCs across five regions involved more than 3,000 devices from more than 10 telecom vendors serving 10 million users. DITO made innovations in technical management, organization management, engineering delivery, and risk control:

• Optimal project portfolio management based on a project set management approach: This method systematically modeled the core network, IP network, transport network, service network, and IT system. DITO identified key delivery paths, iteratively verified technical solutions, and established a multi-level echelon delivery matrix involving the onsite engineers, the local team in Philippines, HQ, and the R&D team.
• Agile delivery and continual improvement: Services were migrated smoothly, preventing signaling storms. To expedite the migration process, DITO ran two shifts. On average, it executed a migration every one to two days, handling two to three tasks per migration. Daily error reviews and corrections ensured agile delivery.
• Strict risk management: DITO identified risks through brainstorming, risk registration, and expert interviews. It meticulously analyzed root causes and formulated mitigation plans. DITO developed risk mitigation measures and contingency plans before, during, and after each migration.

2. Collaboration between DITO and its suppliers propelled 5G SA delivery and enabled the success of the project.

The core network is the "brain" of the network. Migrating the services of the core network—the brain of the network—is the most difficult and complex part of the migration process. Using an end-to-end network design, deployment, testing, and migration platform, the project team managed to perform streamlined and professional operations, ensuring fast 5G SA network construction during the migration process:

• Design: End-to-end service solution design was coupled with comprehensive technical management capabilities and domain-specific operation solutions to ensure 100% operation success.
• Deployment: The automatic and streamlined operation platform enabled end-to-end automatic VNF deployment.
• Testing: Products were tested in parallel. This was followed by solution testing. Software and hardware were tested independently and hierarchically.
• Migration: In accordance with the standard protocol process, the migration was performed in this order: transmission, IP, core network, and upper-layer services.

DITO and its suppliers set up a strong, three-level hierarchical assurance team, with over 1,000 experts from all relevant fields. This helped ensure project success.

3.The success of the DITO DC migration will strengthen DITO's leading edge in 5G buildouts.

In the past three years, DITO has been a leader in 4G/5G service innovation in the Philippines. It has introduced 5G SA 2C and 2H services to the country. All-cloud, fully convergent, and distributed networks have been built after the completion of this migration project. These networks will help expand capacity to accommodate more subscriber needs, and expedite the exploration and development of innovative services such as 2B private lines and satellite communications.