PH internet speeds up since 2016 – 741% for fixed broadband, 341% for mobile

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MANILA, Philippines — Internet speeds in the Philippines have increased since the start of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte in July 2016 — 741% for fixed broadband and 341% for mobile, according to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

This is based on the global index of Speedtest.net by Ookla, an international internet speed monitoring firm.

Last June, the Philippines had an average download speed of 66.55 megabits per second (Mbps) for fixed broadband and 32.84 Mbps for mobile internet.

According to the NTC, this marks a 741.34% improvement from the 7.91Mbps fixed broadband speed and a 341.40% improvement from the 7.44 Mbps mobile internet speed registered in July 2016.

In Speedtest’s global rankings, the Philipines is currently at 62nd place out of 181 countries in terms of fixed broadband internet speed. It ranks 75th out of 137 countries in mobile internet speed.

In 2017, the Philippines’ internet speed ranked 94th out of 133 countries for fixed broadband and 100th out of 122 countries for mobile.

Speedtest also listed that out of 50 countries in Asia, the country’s internet speed now places 17th for fixed broadband and 23rd for mobile.

In the Asia-Pacific Regions, the Philippines ranks 14th for fixed broadband and 13th for mobile out of 46 countries. It ranked 5th in the Association of Southeast Asian Countries in both fixed broadband and mobile out of 10 countries.

The NTC said that this improvement came after Duterte’s directive in July 2020 to speed up the processing of local government permits so telecommunications firms can build additional cellular towers to improve communications and connectivity nationwide.

Since then, there has been a significant increase in the issuance of permits from July 2020 to April 2021.

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