The mobile internet speed in the country has improved by 20 percent in the last two years, according to Opensignal’s latest report.
Average download speeds across all operators increased by more than 20 percent in four regions in the country between fourth quarter 2018 and third quarter of 2020.
The report showed the most impressive gains were made within the National Capital Region (NCR) where users’ download speeds rose 28.9 percent to 13.4 megabits per second (Mbps), over double the speeds seen in Mindanao and the Visayas.
There was one exception, the Visayas, where speeds increased by a more modest 12.2 percent between fourth quarter 2018 and third quarter 2020, Opensignal said.
Smart Communications Inc.’s download speed rose more than 50 percent in Mindanao and South Luzon, but North and Central Luzon saw a smaller increase of 5.3 percent, according to the report.
“Our users in the NCR saw roughly the same increase in percentage terms regardless of which operator’s network they used. Our users in the NCR and South Luzon saw the largest improvement in their Latency,” Opensignal said.
In terms of fourth generation (4G) availability, Opensignal said the proportion of time users spent connected to 4G services in the third quarter of 2020 had risen above 80 percent in North, Central and South Luzon and above 90 percent in NCR.
In all five regions, Smart users’ 4G availability scores increased by more in percentage and absolute terms than their Globe Telecom Inc. counterparts, the report noted.
“As a consequence, our Smart users observed higher scores than our Globe users in third quarter of 2020 in four out of five regions, with the only exception being the NCR, where there was no statistical difference between the two operators’ score,” Opensignal said.
The new analysis noted significant improvements in all five Philippine regions between fourth quarter of 2018 and third quarter this year for mobile video experience, download speeds, latency experience and 4G availability, it added.
