The Philippines ranked 48th among 110 countries worldwide in the latest Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL), climbing 18 places since last year following improvements in internet quality and e-security, according to the study conducted by cybersecurity firm Surfshark.
The Surfshark study, which covered 90 percent of the global population, said it evaluated five fundamental digital wellbeing pillars, with the Philippines ranking impressively in internet quality at 20th and e-security, 30th.
The country has demonstrated the fastest mobile and broadband speed growth annually, it added.
Likewise, the Philippines has surpassed DQL leaders New Zealand, Australia and South Korea in e-security, showing a 20 percent advantage over the global average.
The research also showed the country has room for improvement in internet affordability wherein it ranked 72nd, e-infrastructure as it placed 63rd and e-government at 67th.
“Overall, the Philippines has shown one of the most notable improvements in the past year, ranking up from 66th place to 48th.” the study said.
The country’s internet affordability was found to have improved by 156 percent.
Acting on President Duterte’s mandate to advance the improvements in internet services to keep up with other Southeast Asia countries, the Philippine government had been strictly monitoring connection-related services in the country.
Improvement on internet speed is largely attributed to this development as telcos are able to fast-track building cellular towers and fiber optic networks necessary in boosting services and connectivity.
“Your DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) is striving to provide connectivity and quality of service to the Filipino people. The results present great development but we will not stop there. We are working with the telco industry and other government agencies to ensure that even the average Filipino will have access to the best service possible,” Gregorio Honasan, DICT secretary, said in a statement.
In Ookla’s latest Speedtest Global Index, the country’s fixed broadband and mobile internet speeds posted a month-on-month improvement of 1.95 percent and 0.24 percent, respectively, for over a year.
Ookla said the fixed broadband internet speed increased to 72.56 megabits per second (Mbps) last August from 71.17 Mbps the prior month. Mobile speeds also improved as the country yielded an average download speed of 33.77 Mbps in August from 33.69 Mbps the previous month.
The speeds also represent an improvement of 817.31 percent and 353.89 percent in fixed broadband and mobile, respectively, since the Duterte administration began in July 2016.
The Philippines now ranks 63rd out of 180 countries in terms of fixed broadband speed. For mobile, the country now ranks 73rd out of 140 countries.
Out of 50 countries in Asia, the country’s internet speed now places 17th for fixed broadband and 22nd for mobile.
In Asia-Pacific, the Philippines ranks 14th for fixed broadband and 13th for mobile out of 46 countries. In Asean, the country rank 5th in both fixed broadband and mobile out of 10 countries.
