Philippines' mobile internet speed improves in September — Ookla

MANILA, Philippines — Mobile internet speed in the Philippines improved in September compared to the previous month, but fixed broadband performance weakened, according to a new report from network intelligence provider Ookla.

Results of Ookla’s latest Internet Performance Report released Tuesday showed average mobile download speed in the Philippines stood at 35.03 Mbps in September, faster than 33.77 Mbps recorded in August.

Compared with the same month last year, mobile download speed improved by 107.4%. However, it still fell below the global average of 63.15 Mbps as of September.

The Philippines, in turn, ranked 72nd out of 138 countries tracked by Ookla in terms of mobile download speed in September, up one notch from the preceding month.

Meanwhile, mobile internet upload speed averaged 8.54 Mbps in September, slower than 8.63 Mbps registered in the previous month. Year-on-year, mobile upload speed got better by 53.3%, but still lower than the global average of 13.37 Mbps.

Ookla also reported that average latency, or the time it takes for information to be transmitted from the source to its intended destination, was at 32 ms in September for mobile networks, higher than 30 ms in August. A lower latency score is better.

Fixed broadband slows down

On the other hand, the Philippines’ fixed broadband download speed averaged 71.85 Mbps in September, down from 72.56 Mbps registered in August. This dragged down the Philippines’ monthly ranking by one notch to 64th spot out of 181 countries covered by Ookla’s report.

Despite the month-on-month drop, data showed average broadband download speed got faster by 175.5% year-on-year. But the September figure was still below the global average of 113.25 Mbps.

In terms of upload speed, it averaged 70.32 Mbps for fixed broadband in September, slower than 72.16 Mbps in the previous month but exceeding the global average of 62.45 Mbps. On an annual basis, upload speed for home and office internet was 169.7% faster.

Latency, meanwhile, was unchanged at 19 ms month-on-month.

The country's sloppy telco connection has always been a problem. Apart from naming a new service provider, the government, through a relatively new ICT department, has adopted a common tower policy, a program meant to increase the number of cellular sites in the archipelago to catch up with rising demand for network services.

In the same report, Ookla said Smart Communications Inc., the wireless unit of telco giant PLDT Inc., was the fastest mobile operator in the Philippines in the third quarter with a speed score of of 59.71 on modern chipset.

Globe ranked second with a score of 28.38, followed by third telco player Dito which scored 25.34.