"Internet speeds must be fast and cheap."
The monthly figures confirm what we instinctively know. Compared with the rest of the world, the Philippines is near the back of the pack when it comes to the speed of our internet connections.
The Speedtest Global Index, a monthly ranking of mobile and fixed broadband speeds from around the world, showed the Philippines with an average mobile internet speed of only 18.49 megabits per second (Mbps), placing us at No. 110 among 139 countries.
To put things in perspective, the United Arab Emirates ranks No. 1 with 170.30 Mbps, while Afghanistan is dead last at No. 139 with 6.31 Mbps. In mobile internet speed, we are faster only than countries such as Bolivia, Namibia, Haiti, Panama, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan and Afghanistan. In Southeast Asia, the only country with slower mobile internet speeds is Indonesia (17.45 Mbps).
Our mobile internet speed of 18.49 Mbps is well below the global average of 45.69 Mbps, and the regional average of 30.94 Mbps among the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It is, in fact, the second slowest among the ASEAN.
Our fixed broadband speed is only slightly better. At an average speed of only 28.69 Mbps, we rank No. 103 among 176 countries.
Singapore ranks No. 1 with 241.10 Mbps, while Turkmenistan is at the tail end with 3.47 Mbps.
In Southeast Asia, only Cambodia (25.31 Mbps) and Indonesia (23.32 Mbps) have slower fixed broadband speeds.
Makati Rep. Luis Jose Angel N. Campos Jr., who has filed a bill to enable the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to set mandatory speed targets for service providers every year and hefty fines if these are not met, points out that mobile internet speed is particularly important since an overwhelming majority of Filipinos now access the internet using their phones.
The market research company Statista projects that mobile internet user penetration will grow from 65.38 percent of all mobile users in 2019 to almost 80 percent by 2025.
“We want the NTC to set faster Internet speed targets every year, and then penalize the service providers that fail to deliver,” Campos said. His bill sets a fine of P1 million per day or P365 million a year until telecommunications companies comply with the targets.
Suggestions to improve internet speed and to bring down the price of access gain even more urgency in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the new normal that emphasizes digital transactions—in commerce as well as education.
The World Bank, in its Philippine Economic Update in June, noted that internet speeds must be fast and cheap or it may hinder the revival of the economy.
“The current state of [the] internet in the Philippines calls for urgent and substantial improvements for the digital economy to play a key role in the economic recovery,” the World Bank said. The Philippines is seen as a “potentially significant player” in the global digital market with 73 million internet users, but the country remains a laggard in digital adoption.
To thrive in this new economy, we must find our way out of the digital backwoods that a well-entrenched duopoly has created. Our survival may well depend on it.