The country’s fixed broadband average download speed for February 2021, as reported by Ookla Speedtest Global Index, registered its highest jump since the beginning of the Duterte administration.
The 5.73 notch up from 32.73Mbps last month to 38.46Mbps in February 2021 reported a monthly increase of 17.51%, and 386.22% increase from the country’s download speed of 7.91Mbps back in July 2016.
Mobile network overall performance also improved as the country yielded an average download speed of 26.24Mbps, showing an increase of 252.68% from its speed of 7.44Mbps back in July 2016.
The improvement in the country’s internet speed comes after President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s directive last July 2020 to expedite the issuance of various permits from LGUs.
The fast-tracking of the issuance of permits resulted in an increase in the number of cellular towers built. From July 2020 to January 2021, 3,211 additional towers were built.
To date, the country has a total of 23,106 cellular towers- Globe having 10,596, and Smart and DITO having 10,150 and 2,360, respectively.
Telcos also continue to invest heavily on their fiber optic network with a total of 320,748 cable-kilometers already laid out all over the country to date. Smart/PLDT currently has the widest network with 178,061 cable-kilometers of fiber optic built- Globe, 69,249; Converge, 58,319; and DITO, 15,119.
The DICT and NTC have been conducting strategic meetings with Globe, Smart, DITO, and Converge to ensure that their respective infrastructure roll-out, expansion, and improvement plans for 2021 shall be on time.
Said regulators closely tracked the telcos’ progress in improving the country’s internet speed resulting to better rankings in the Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index.
Recently, Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr. lauded the improvement in the Philippines’ internet speed in terms of mobile broadband- citing the January Speedtest Global Index, the country’s mobile internet speed ranking went up by 10 places from 96th to 86th in the worldwide rankings.
