If you’ve ever stared at your electricity bill in Cebu and wondered how on earth you consumed that much power, you aren’t alone. Visayan Electric is finally making a move to fix that headache. The utility provider has partnered with DITO Telecommunity to roll out an intelligent metering system powered by a 5G standalone network.
This isn’t just about replacing those old, dusty mechanical meters outside your gate. It’s a total shift in how electricity data gets to you. The smart meters act like little computers, constantly talking to the utility company’s servers to report exactly how much power you’re pulling from the grid at any given second.
"We’re looking forward to implementing these innovations to put the power in the customers’ hands so they can control their consumption," says Mark Valencia, the chief technology officer of Aboitiz Power Distribution Utilities.
Normally, we wait for a meter reader to swing by our street, hope they get the numbers right, and then wait for the paper bill to arrive. With this 5G-enabled system, that wait time disappears. The data goes directly to the Visayan Electric monitoring platform in real-time. This means that if you check your MobileAP app, you could potentially see your usage updates as frequently as every five minutes.
Think of it as having a live dashboard for your appliances. For a small business owner in Colon trying to keep overhead costs low or a family in Talamban managing a tight monthly budget, this is a transformative shift that provides granular visibility into energy consumption. You can spot when your power usage spikes, identify which appliance is the culprit, and adjust your habits before the bill reaches your hands. It turns electricity management from a guessing game into something you can actually track like a mobile data plan.
The collaboration between Visayan Electric and DITO Business isn’t just a random business deal. Adel Tamano, the chief commercial officer of DITO Telecommunity, noted that their relationship goes way back to when the telco was just starting out in 2019. Back then, Aboitiz was one of the early companies to throw their support behind the newcomer.
For some perspective on how fast things have moved, DITO hit the ground running on March 8, 2021, starting with absolutely zero subscribers. As of today, they’ve ballooned to 17 million users across the country. That’s a lot of people relying on their network, and now they’re becoming the backbone for critical utility infrastructure in the Queen City of the South.
Anton Perdices, the president and chief operating officer of Aboitiz Power Distribution Utilities, admitted that while they’re traditionally a power company, they’re now leaning heavily into tech. He believes that distributing power isn’t just about wires and transformers anymore; it’s about managing massive amounts of digital information. They’re positioning themselves to be a tech-oriented business that just happens to keep the lights on.
Right now, this is still in the early stages. About 600 smart meters have already been planted across Cebu City as a test run. The plan is to ramp things up significantly by the first quarter of 2027. If you live in areas like Sambag I or Talamban, you might be among the first to see the change in your own home.
Beyond just helping you save money, this move makes life easier for the utility team, too. If there’s a service interruption or a weird surge in the lines, the smart system tells them immediately. They don’t have to wait for a phone call from a frustrated resident to know that a transformer blew out or a line dropped. It allows for a much faster response time when things go sideways.
This project is a massive pivot for how utilities function in the Philippines. We’re moving away from the era of manual monitoring and into a space where data transparency is the norm. For the average Cebuano, it means you finally get the visibility you need to stop asking "ano ba yan?" when you see your electricity bill. It’s a cleaner, faster, and more modern way to manage the power that runs our daily lives.