The country’s fixed broadband and mobile broadband download speeds further improved in December, boosted by the aggressive network rollout of telecom companies nationwide, according to Ookla Speedtest Global Index report.
It showed that the Philippines’ fixed broadband median speed improved to 87.13 megabits per second last month from 81.42 Mbps in November.
The latest download speed represented a 7.01-percent month-on-month improvement for fixed broadband. It also indicated an improvement of 26.39 percent since the start of the Marcos administration in July 2022.
Mobile median speed increased, as the country yielded a download speed of 25.12 Mbps in December, compared to 24.04 Mbps in November.
The latest download speed signified a 4.49-percent month-on-month improvement for mobile. The speed also represented an improvement of 17.33 percent since July 2022.
National Telecommunications Commission officer-in-charge Ella Blanca Lopez said “the continued improvement in internet speed is a welcome development as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. encourages the country to embrace digitalization if it wants to survive and thrive in a post-pandemic economy.”
The NTC said the streamlining and speeding up of the issuance of permits by local government units in July 2020 translated into a significant increase in permits granted to telcos from July 2020 to November 2022.
It said the improvement in internet speed was largely attributed to this development as telcos were able to fast-track building infrastructure such as cellular towers and fiber optic network that were necessary in boosting services and connectivity.
The country’s three major telcos allotted a total of P230 billion in capital expenditures in 2022. Of the total, PLDT programmed P85 billion in capex; Globe, P95 billion; and DITO Telecom Corp., P50 billion.
PLDT allotted about P85 billion in 2023 capex, while Globe and DITO would spend about P66 billion and P27 billion, respectively this year.
