The Philippines’ average Internet speed continues to improve as the country further climbed the global internet speed rankings, according to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
Based on the latest report of global Internet speed monitoring firm Ookla Speedtest, the fixed broadband download speed in the country was clocked at 58.73 megabits per second (Mbps) with an upload speed of 57.40 Mbps in May.
On the other hand, country’s mobile download speed was at 31.98 Mbps while the upload speed was recorded at 8.74 Mbps that same month.
The DICT said the latest figures translates to an improvement of 19.1 percent for fixed broadband and 9.8 percent for mobile internet speeds, compared to 49.31 Mbps download speed for fixed broadband and 29.12 Mbps download speed for mobile in April.
With this development, the Philippines climbed the global rankings from the 80th spot to the 65th spot out of 180 countries in fixed broadband, and from the 84th spot to the 77th spot out of 137 countries in mobile.
“We recognize and laud the initiatives and tireless efforts of the members of the telecommunications and information service industries and the public sector in fostering and accelerating digital connectivity in the country,” DICT Secretary Gregorio “Gringo” B. Honasan II said in a statement Friday, June 18.
“The continuing challenge, especially in this time of COVID-19 crisis, is to provide both connectivity and quality of service to the people. To meet that challenge, we all need to unite, cooperate, engage, and work together—the industry, the national and local government, and the entire nation. The report shows good improvement, but so much more needs to be done,” he added.
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said that the recent upward surge can be credited to President Duterte’s directive in July 2020 for telecommunications companies to improve their services amid the ongoing pandemic, the DICT said.
The President also highlighted the need for a more efficient processing of local government unit (LGU) permits to fast-track the rollout of cellular towers, it added.
“Your Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) assures the public that we will continue to strengthen our connectivity programs to boost Internet quality and coverage in the country, especially in the remote and far-flung areas,” Honasan said.