The Philippines’ internet speed continued to accelerate in May as compared to the prior month due to the aggressive expansion of fiber networks and faster issuance of permits to build new towers.
The latest Ookla Speedtest Global Index reported the country’s internet average download speed continued to accelerate as fixed broadband speed increased from 49.31 megabits per second (Mbps) in April to 58.73 Mbps last month.
The latest download speed represents a monthly improvement of 19 percent for fixed broadband, and up by 643 percent since the Duterte administration began in July 2016.
The improvement on fixed broadband speed is largely attributed to the telcos’ continued investment in fiber optic networks that total to 846,323 cable-kilometers as of April 2021, a 17 percent increase from the 726,705 cable km. completed at the end of 2020.
Smart Communications Inc. currently has the widest network with 497,700 cable km. of fiber optic built. Converge ICT Solutions Inc. has laid out 260,030 km., Globe Telecom Inc. has 72,573 km. and third telco DITO Telecommunity Corp., 16,020 km.
Mobile internet also improved in May as the country yielded an average download speed of 31.97 Mbps from 29.12 Mbps the month before, according to Ookla.
The latest download speed represents a monthly improvement of 9.8 percent for mobile, and up by 329.7 percent from July 2016.
Improvement in mobile speed may be attributed to the increase in local government unit (LGU) permits granted to telcos and consequently to more towers built.
After the President’s announcement to streamline and speed up the issuance of LGU permits in July 2020, there has been a significant increase in permits granted to telcos from July 2020 to April this year vis-í -vis 2019.
As of January to April this year, LGUs have issued 2,789 permits to telcos. Last year, a total of 6,451 permits were issued, a significant improvement from 1,636 permits the previous year.
This resulted in more towers built, with the telcos putting up 1,672 towers as of last April.
Last year, the telcos built 4,337 towers, up by 148 percent from 1,746 towers set up in 2019.
To date, the country has a total of 24,614 cellular towers, with Globe accounting for 10,941 towers, Smart having 10,433 and DITO, 3,240.
