A YEAR after President Duterte mandated PLDT and Globe Telecom to improve their services, the country’s internet speed continues to show marked improvements in recent months.
Ookla Speedtest Global Index reported that the country’s internet average download speed continued to accelerate as fixed broadband speed increased from 58.73Mbps in May 2021 to 66.55Mbps in June.
The latest download speed represents a month-to-month improvement of 13.32% for fixed broadband.
The speed also represents an improvement of 741.34% since the Duterte administration began in July 2016.
Mobile speed also improved in June as the country yielded an average download speed of 32.84Mbps from 31.97Mbps the month before. The latest download speed represents a month-to-month improvement of 2.72% for mobile. The speed represents an improvement of 341.40% since the Duterte administration began in July 2016.
The President’s announcement to streamline and speed up the issuance of LGU permits in July 2020 generated a significant increase in permits granted to telcos from July 2020 to May this year vis-à-vis 2019.
Improvement on internet speed is largely attributed to this development as telcos are able to fast-track building infrastructure (cellular towers and fiber optic network) necessary in boosting services and connectivity.