MANILA: The Philippines’ average internet speed has improved from 2.5 megabits per second (Mbps) to 3.5 Mbps in past two years, an increase of just 1 Mbps, putting it way behind its Southeast Asian neighbors in terms of growth.
The country has consistently placed at the bottom in average internet speed rankings among Asian countries, the quarterly State of the internet report by content delivery network service provider Akamai has pointed out.
Neighboring countries scored higher, such as Malaysia’s 6.4 Mbps and Indonesia’s 4.5 Mbps, Inquirer quoted the report.
Vietnam’s average speed improved from 2.9 Mbps to 5 Mbps over the same period. Indonesia’s speed also improved from 2.5 Mbps to 4.5 Mbps and Thailand’s average speed jumped from 6.3 Mbps to 10.8 Mbps.
Globally, Venezuela and Paraguay have the slowest average internet speed at 1.6 Mbps.
Other countries similar to the Philippines’ speed are India and Costa Rica at 3.8 Mbps and 3.5 Mbps, respectively, said the news portal.
Ookla, another broadband analyst, had also reportedly ranked the Philippines as having the second slowest internet speed out of 22 countries in Southeast Asia in May 2015.
Aside from slow speed, Filipinos continue to pay more for their internet access compared to other Asian neighbors with an average value of $18.19 per Mbps compared to the average global cost of $5.21 per Mbps, according to Ookla.
With the establishment of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the government aims to provide broadband connections to all public schools nationwide, establish at least one public internet cafe in each barangay and ensure the availability of broadband internet speed of at least 2 Mbps to 80 percent of households by the end of 2016, reported Inquirer.
The department was created following the objectives of the Philippine Digital Strategy (PDS) of the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) and also to give the ICT sector the focus and attention it was not getting before under the Department of Transportation and Communications, the report said.
