Phl mobile internet speed fastest in Asia in Q3

By Louella Desiderio (The Philippine Star), Dec. 23, 2016

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines had the fastest average mobile internet speed in Asia Pacific in the third quarter, according to the latest report of content delivery network services provider Akamai.

Akamai’s Q3 2016 State of the Internet report released earlier this month showed the Philippines had an average mobile internet speed of 13.9 mbps for the July to September period of this year, the fastest in the Asia Pacific region.

Akamai said it included the Philippines in the list of Asia Pacific countries even as the country was unable to meet the minimum requirement of having 25,000 unique IPv4 addresses classified as mobile, for reference.

Excluding the Philippines from the list of Asia Pacific countries, Australia had the fastest average mobile internet speed of 12.8 mbps.

Japan placed second with an average mobile internet speed of 11.6 mbps, while South Korea ranked third with 11.2 mbps.

Indonesia and New Zealand got the fourth and fifth spots with their respective average mobile internet speeds of 10.9 mbps and 10.8 mbps.

Placing sixth was Taiwan (9.4 mbps), followed by China (8.9 mbps) at seventh place and Singapore (8.5 mbps) ranking eighth.

Hong Kong and Thailand, which both had an average mobile internet speed of 6.1 mbps, got the ninth place, followed by Sri Lanka (5.4 mbps), India and Malaysia (3.5 mbps) and Vietnam (3.4 mbps).

In Akamai’s Q2 2016 State of the Internet report, the Philippines had an average mobile internet speed of 8.5 mbps in the April to June period.

Ramon Isberto, public affairs head of Smart Communications Inc., said in a telephone interview that while there was qualification with respect to the inclusion of the Philippines in the list, the report shows improvements in terms of mobile internet speed.

“Even with the qualifications, the report seems to reflect the investments we have been making in mobile internet particularly 4G or LTE (Long Term Evolution),” he said.

He said the data also shows the impact of the utilization of new frequencies telco players PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. gained access to after their purchase of San Miguel Corp.’s telecom business last May 30.

“We expect to see more of the impact of it in the first quarter of next year. We were only beginning to roll out the new frequencies, particularly the 700 Megahertz (Mhz) in the third quarter,” he said.

Both PLDT and Globe have said earlier, the use of new frequencies is expected to allow the telcos to deliver improved mobile internet services to subscribers.