A recent survey conducted by consumer comparison site Cable.co.uk indicated that the average cost of broadband (per month) of the Philippines was at US$53.71. This cost was below the global average of US$78.14 for 211 countries.
The country’s US$0.75 Average Cost of Broadband (per megabit per month) ranked 18th out of 42 Asian countries, 14th out of 35 Asia-Pacific countries and 6th out of 10 ASEAN countries.
In Asia, Macau, Singapore and Hong Kong led the rankings with an Average Cost of Broadband (per megabit per month) of US$0.30, US$0.40 and US$0.50 respectively. Meanwhile, in the Asia-Pacific, Singapore at US$0.04, Russia at US$0.10 and Thailand at US$0.12 were the least expensive. Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam’s US$0.17 were ASEAN’s best.
The countries with the most expensive costs were Afghanistan at US$70.45, Marshall Islands at US$148.01 and Timor-Leste at US$14.91.
Telco broadband prices are expected to be more competitive this year as the country’s third major telco player, DITO Telecommunity, is set to launch commercially on March 2021. With DITO’s entry, incumbents Globe and Smart are set to increase capital expenditures significantly this year. Globe set its 2021 capex to P90 billion, while Smart to P92 billion. Both investments are the highest for each telco in the past six years.
DITO, meanwhile, plans to go head-to-head with the incumbents fulfilling its commitment of spending P150 billion for its infrastructure roll-out.
Ookla, the global leader in internet testing, data and analysis, in its December 2020 report indicated a 297.47% improvement on the Philippines’ internet average download speed for fixed broadband and 202.41% for mobile broadband, compared to July 2016 speeds. The country’s average download speed for fixed broadband continues to improve from 7.91Mbps (July 2016) to 31.44Mbps (December 2020), while average download speed for mobile broadband also improved from 7.44Mbps (July 2016) to 22.50Mbps (December 2020).