Philippines internet speeds continue to improve

MANILA, Philippines — Average internet speeds in the country continue to improve in July, according to  Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index.

The country posted an average download speed of 71.17 megabits per second (Mbps) for fixed broadband in July, an improvement from the 66.55 Mbps average speed in June.

For mobile internet, average download speed increased to 33.69 Mbps from 32.84 Mbps the previous month.

With these improvements, the Philippines’ global rank currently sits 63rd out of 180 countries for fixed broadband, and 72nd out of 139 countries for mobile internet.

The country ranked 17th for fixed broadband and 23rd for mobile internet out of 50 countries in Asia.

In ASEAN, the Philippines placed fifth out of 10 countries in both fixed broadband and mobile internet.

“These data show us the impressive rate of growth of our country’s internet speeds in just a year,” Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Gregorio Honasan said.

In July last year, average internet speeds in the country stood at only 25.07 Mbps for fixed broadband and 16.95 Mbps for mobile internet.

“Your DICT will continue to coordinate with the National Telecommunications Commission as well as with other government agencies and private stakeholders to ensure that internet speeds for fixed broadband and mobile internet will continue their upward trajectory in the coming months,” Honasan said.

The DICT attributed the sustained increase in the country’s internet speed to President Duterte’s directive last year for telcos to improve their services amid the pandemic, as well as the agency’s strengthened roll-out of its digital connectivity initiatives.

Complementing the DICT’s common tower policy is the issuance of the revised and expanded joint memorandum circular (JMC) for the streamlined process of securing permits, licenses, and authorizations for building passive telecommunications tower infrastructures.

“Through our collective efforts in the government, we have significantly eased up bureaucratic processes in the issuance of permits for cell towers. Hence, we encourage tower companies and telcos to avail of the collocation services contained in the common tower policy to qualify for the benefits under the JMC,” Honasan said.