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DITO Home WOWFi w/ True 5G Long-Term Experience - Stable, reliable, affordable

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DITO Telecommunity's Home WOWFi with True 5G has been out for almost 3 months now.
DITO Home WOWFi speed test sample

It's the company's newest Prepaid Home WiFi service promising fast and reliable home internet connection without breaking the bank.

On paper, it could be great for students, work-from-home individuals, or simply anyone who wishes to have a speedy connection in the comfort of their homes without the need to apply for telco plans or cannot be serviced by fiber yet.

We've been using it for quite a while now and here's what we think about it.

DITO Home WOWFi w/ True 5G Long-Term Experience - Stable, reliable, affordable


First, have a look at our unboxing and initial experience in the embedded video above.

To recap, it comes with a DITO box, a stand-alone router, documentation, a power-in-to-wall adapter, and a DITO SIM.

Build Quality/Design

The unit itself
The unit itself

The router itself is made of a lightweight yet sturdy white polycarbonate shell.
The ports at the back
The ports at the back

In front is the DITO Home logo while at the back are the reset port, power port, and multiple ethernet ports.

On top is a smooth surface and at the bottom are the stand, SIM slot, and the printed IMEI and regulatory information.

The bottom feet or stand has no rubber footing so be careful not to put it on a slippery surface.

I've dropped mine accidentally a few times now and thankfully the device is durable enough to be still working. 

How to set up the DITO Home WOWFi?

Setting up the DITO Home WOWFi is intuitive and easy.
What you'll see at the bottom
What you'll see at the bottom

You first have to insert the included SIM card into a smartphone or tablet and then register the SIM via the DITO app. After the law-mandated SIM registration, eject it from your device. You then insert it into the DITO 5G router.
SIM Registration on the DITO app is easy
SIM Registration on the DITO app is easy

After inserting the SIM, you plug the router into the wall with the included power-in-to-wall adapter.

Note: This is a plug-and-play device and we recommend using it near the windows for better signal reception.

Users can then connect to the WiFi network SSID and input the password printed at the bottom of the WiFi router.

After the initial connection, users can change the SSID (WiFi name) and the password.

After this, users can connect with the router with multiple devices using the user-determined SSID and password.

We also like that the device has plenty of options to manage the home WiFi device.
WiFi settings in PC
WiFi settings on PC

By accessing 192.168.8.1, users can check the live status of their device and test where is the best place to get the most optimal mobile network signal in their area. Users can even disable the mobile data here.

Of course, you may also see the number of devices connected to the network and even set up a Guest WiFi account that your guest can access for 4 hours, 1 day, and unlimited.

On the tools tab, you can see the SMS messages, Statistics, and Parental Control.

You can limit the internet access time in the Parental Control which is very helpful for parents who do not want their children to have a lot of screen time.

For those who like to tinker and have more control over their device, it also has Advanced settings where you can WiFi settings, Updates, manage the security by filtering the MAC address, IP, and even the domain, and even modify the password, unlock, the device and reset the device, among others.

Performance

Speed test result on my PC
Speed test result on my PC

We used the DITO Home WOWFi in different locations including our residences in Mandaluyong and Antipolo Rizal.
You can buy load on the DITO app
You can buy load on the DITO app

On paper, DITO is promising up to 100 Mbps of DL speed depending on DITO 5G signal strength in your area.

In our experience, the best speeds we got in our residence in Mandaluyong.


We are getting almost 70 Mbps of download speeds consistently in Mandaluyong. The average upload speed is almost 5 Mbps. This makes the device great for streaming even HD content and even playing games.

More than decent experience for a signal-based home WiFi device

In our Antipolo place, the download speeds are slower at 30 to 40 Mbps. BUT, the upload speeds are better at an average of 30 Mbps consistently. This is still good for YouTube and even 1080p Netflix streaming. Browsing is quick and I can still use it for downloading apps on the phones we review.
Great for FHD streaming
Great for FHD streaming
Good for enough even for mobile games
Good for enough even for mobile games

Thanks to its faster-than-usual upload speed, I was able to upload some of my short TikTok and Instagram Reels videos with ease and even some long-form YouTube videos on our channel.

For example, uploading a 19-minute 4K video (edited with CapCut Pro) on YouTube only requires less than 30 minutes to complete.
Outdoor speed test (Greenhills area)
Outdoor speed test (Greenhills area)

Outdoors, the experience is still decent with 15 to 25 Mbps of speed for seamless browsing, music streaming, file sharing, accessing cloud-based apps, using navigation apps, and more. We find it usable in SM Megamall, SM Podium, and Greenhills area.

he experience in the metro is not as great as our experiences at home. We usually get around 15 to 25 Mbps of speed only. It is still usable, but we suspect that DITO's network for Home WiFi devices is not that optimized in commercial areas. We tried it in SM Megamall, Podium, and Greenhills.

It would have been better if it had a USB-C power input port so we could use it with a power bank without the need to plug it into an outlet while on the go.

Nevertheless, the DITO Home WOWFI remains superb since the technology behind it is 5G RedCap or 5G NR-Light, a 5G standard for standalone 5G with ultra-low latency with higher capacity and quality.

Moreover, it has a WiFi 6 connection with better speed and efficiency with less congestion than the previous generation.

DITO claims that it can connect up to 40 devices simultaneously. But, it is better to connect the maximum number of devices if you're also getting the maximum possible speed available.

With the speed that I have it is ideal to connect up to 10 devices to be able to decently access the internet for basic browsing and TikTok streaming.

Pros - Easy to use, 5G RedCap, stable speeds, can connect a lot of devices, super affordable
Cons - No rubber feet 

Our thoughts

Good overall experience
Good overall experience

Overall, this is probably the best wireless Home WiFi experience we've had in a while. It is obviously after and more stable than the previous 4G+ devices we tried in the past.

This could be a godsend for those who are in areas underserved by Fiber lines, do not have a fiber plan yet, and as a backup WiFi device.

The load is also affordable. It is just PHP 790 per month for unlimited 5G data with an extra 50GB of 4G data.

What do you guys think?

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