PLDT and its wireless subsidiary, Smart Communication, Inc. were once again recognized as the country’s fastest fixed and mobile internet networks, continuing to set the standard for Internet speeds in the Philippines.
The results are based on analysis of Ookla on tests using Speedtest, covering the second half of 2019. Smart posted a Speed Score of 81.13 – with average download speeds of 20.42Mbps, and average upload speeds of 9.87Mbps, based on 1,822,401 user-initiated tests on LTE-capable devices for the period of Q3 to Q4 of 2019.
PLDT, on the other hand, scored 25.03, with top download speeds of 62.87Mbps, and top upload speeds of 80.07Mbps. This is based on 29,505,821 customer-initiated tests for Q3 to Q4 of 2019.
These figures show improvement from PLDT and Smart’s results on the first half of 2019, with a Speed Score of 17.07 for the latter, and 20.44 for the former.
Digital 2020 report
According to the Digital 2020 report, the Philippines once again tops global rankings as far as average time spent daily on the Internet is concerned. To be exact, it’s 9 hours and 45 minutes, which is above the global average of 6 hours and 43 minutes.
Our country also takes the lead in terms of average time spent using mobile Internet daily, with the average Filipino logging on to the Internet via their mobile device for 5 hours and 11 minutes a day, also above the global average of 3 hours and 22 minutes.
Fastest network in key cities
Initial data included in Ookla’s country reports also show that Smart still posts a big lead in key cities like Quezon City, Makati and Manila, for example, while PLDT is still way ahead in Quezon City, Cebu City, and Cagayan De Oro.
Investment in network transformation
The latest Ookla awards come amid years of sustained investments in the expansion and upgrade of PLDT and Smart’s network. It also affirms finding of a recent report by umlaut, a global benchmarking company, widely regarded as the de-facto industry standard. They awarded Smart with the Best in Test award in October 2019, and lauded the company for having the best and widest 4G/LTE coverage, along with the fastest upload and download speeds.
The Germany-based company also cited Smart for providing the best network performance during the 30th Southeast Asian Games in December.
You may check out the detailed reports for Smart and PLDT.
Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.
