Smart Communications Inc. claimed it continued to overtake rival Globe Telecom Inc. in terms of long-term evolution (LTE) download speeds nationwide and in all major regions in the country based on the latest study released by OpenSignal.
The OpenSignal report, which covers the months of November to January, showed that Smart LTE download speeds led across all measured areas.
In National Capital Region, Smart’s LTE download speed was at 13.04 Mbps, faster than of Globe’s 8.57 Mbps; North Central Luzon, (Smart 11.59 Mbps vs Globe’s 6.34 Mbps) South Luzon (Smart 11.66 Mbps vs Globe 7.03 Mbps), Visayas (Smart 13.49 Mbps vs Globe 7.37 Mbps), and Mindanao (1Smart 4.42 Mbps vs Globe 7.38 Mbps).
The study also found that Smart’s 4G/LTE availability jumped to 59.68 percent from 39.96 percent a year ago.
Smart is also ahead in terms of latency, a metric that measures a network’s responsiveness, at 47.21ms, quicker than the competition’s 60.7ms. Latency, measured in milliseconds, is the time it takes data to make a round trip through the network. A lower score in the metric is a sign of a more responsive network, OpenSignal said.
OpenSignal’s State of Mobile Networks: Philippines report, which is based on independent analysis of 771,762,782 on-device measurements recorded by 51,417 users from Nov. 2, 2017 to Jan. 31, 2018, found Smart ahead in nationwide LTE download speeds at 12.5 Mbps, compared to the competition’s 7.7 Mbps.
“The OpenSignal results are proof that our investments in improving our network are bearing fruit,” PLDT and Smart senior vice president for network planning and engineering Mario Tamayo said.
“With our ongoing roll-out of LTE and LTE-Advanced to more areas, we are on track to meet our commitment to the National Telecommunications Commission to achieve 90 percent municipality coverage for 3G and 4G mobile broadband by the end of this year,” he added.
Tamayo also said better latency also meant better experience for customers who wanted to play games on their mobile phones and update their social media accounts without lag.