Philippines improves ranking in fixed broadband speed

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines saw its ranking improve slightly in terms of fixed broadband internet speeds in January, while its ranking declined in terms of mobile internet speeds compared to the previous month, according to global internet testing and analysis firm Ookla.

Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index report for January 2018 showed the Philippines ranked 87th out of 128 countries in terms of fixed broadband internet speed, up one place from its ranking in December 2017.

For January, the country had an average download speed of 15.67 Mbps and average upload speed of 13.53 Mbps.

While the country showed improvement in the fixed broadband internet speed ranking, its average download and upload speeds were still below the respective global average of 41.88 Mbps and 20.36 Mbps.

In terms of mobile internet, the Philippines saw its ranking drop four places to 94th out of 125 countries in January compared to December last year. 

The country had an average download speed of 12.55 Mbps and average upload speed of 5.86 Mbps for mobile internet in January.

In the same month, the global average download speed for mobile internet was 22.23 Mbps, while the global average upload speed was 8.94 Mbps.

Ookla’s speed test results are updated on a monthly basis.

“To be ranked in each category, countries must have at least 670 unique user results for mobile and at least 3,333 for fixed broadband,” Ookla said.

Commenting on the latest report, Oscar Reyes, PLDT senior vice president and head of consumer business market development said in a statement, the “results reflect the growing impact of our ongoing efforts to provide fiber-powered broadband services to more customers in more areas of the country.”

As of the end of last year,  the coverage of PLDT’s fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network reached four million homes.

With the ongoing network modernization and upgrade plans in the pipeline, PLDT expects to reach more homes and businesses across the country as it expands fixed broadband coverage by about 30 percent to 5.1 million homes passed.

Apart from deploying more FTTH facilities, PLDT is also upgrading its copper-based broadband service to much faster hybrid fiber connections.

By 2019, PLDT is aiming to have more than one million copper-based DSL subscribers to enjoy Fibr-fast internet.