PH Internet Speed: Slow and Expensive

QUEZON City, Philippines (February 29) – Filipinos are using social media platforms 53 hours a week, which means a whole 11 hours more than the global average of 42 hours and that’s the reason why the Philippines was named as the “Social Media Capital of the World”. But what makes the title more amazing is the fact that, according to Ookla, the world’s leading Internet speed testing company that ranks and index the download speed of broadband Internet speed around the globe, the Philippine has the second slowest in terms of Internet speed in Asia and one of the worst Internet download and upload speed in the world.

In comparison, the Philippines’  Southeast Asian neighbor, Singapore rank top as the fastest Internet speed in the world with the unbeatable 122.43 Mbps followed by Hongkong with a 102.96 Mbps  Internet speed, then Saint Pierre and Miquelon with 97.11 Mbps. Also there are other countries from Asia that got into the top 10 fastest Internet speed, like Japan (top 4) with 82.12 Mbps, South Korea (top 6) with 59.77 Mbps and Macau  (top 9) with 50.66 Mbps, while the Philippine ranks 176 which is really far from our neighbors. This simply means, that it will take a lot of work just to catch up.

Top ten fastest Internet speed in the world:

1. Singapore – 122.43 mbps
2. Hong Kong – 102.96 mbps
3. Saint Pierre and Miquelon – 97.11 mbps
4. Japan – 82.12 mbps
5. Romania – 73.75 mbps
6. South Korea – 59.77 mbps
7. Sweden – 58.48 mbps
8. Lithuania – 58.43 mbps
9. Macau – 50.85 mbps
10. Netherlands – 50.66 mbps

Also in Asian countries, only Afghanistan ranks lowest than the Philippines with the 2.52 Mbps, but still Philippine is the second lowest with such a turtle speed of 3.64 Mbps.

Here is the list of Asian countries ranked with Ookla’s household speed index as of May 2015:

1. Singapore – 122.43 Mbps
2. Hong Kong – 102.96 Mbps
3. Japan – 82.12 Mbps
4. South Korea – 59.77 Mbps
5. Macau – 50.66 Mbps
6. Taiwan – 50.59 Mbps
7. Thailand – 19.82 Mbps
8. Mongolia – 17.92 Mbps
9. Vietnam – 17.70 Mbps
10. Bangladesh – 9.86 Mbps
11. Cambodia 9.04 Mbps
12. Nepal 8.63 Mbps
13. Brunei 7.99 Mbps
14. Bhutan – 7.82 Mbps
15. India 7.04 Mbps
16. Malaysia 7.03 Mbps
17. Laos 6.92 Mbps
18. Indonesia 6.68 Mbps
19. Myanmar 6.54 Mbps
20. Pakistan 4.00 Mbps
21. Philippines – 3.64 Mbps
22. Afghanistan – 2.52 Mbps

Moreover, the global average of upload speed in the world is 10.59 Mbps, meaning that the Philippines rank lower than the average with an upload speed of 1.53 Mbps, while the average global download speed is 23.3 Mbps which  is eight times faster than in the Philippines. It is not questionable that the country is considered as one of the countries having the worst Internet speed worldwide.

It is bad enough to be ranked as one of the countries in the world that have slow Internet speed, but what makes the situation worse is the fact that despite the bad service, the Philippine has the most expensive Internet connection in the world. According to studies, Philippine Internet users spend $18.19 (P864.84) per Mbps, compared to average of  $5.21 (P247.71) per Mbps worldwide. That’s definitely the reason the Philippines is at 176 out of 202 countries.

Not to be all negative, there is actually a minor improvement with  the Internet speed compared to last year speed of only 3.4 Mbps. Well, let’s hope that in the future the Internet connection in the Philippine will be fast, reliable, accessible, and affordable and hopefully can download and upload in just a blink of an eye.

(written by Mia Caragay, edited by Jay Paul Carlos, additional research by Lovely Ann Cruz)