Ookla said the mobile Internet speed in the country also improved, but at a much slower pace, showing an 99.1% increase in download speed over the last four years.
Lawmakers are calling on local telcos to find a way to speed up the slow Internet speed in the provinces with the opening for public schools fast approaching on Oct. 5.
After getting flak for saying that the current Internet speed at 3 to 7Mbps is “not so bad”, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) secretary Gregorio Honasan II acknowledged that the country should aim for a higher standard.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson made the statement after DICT Gregorio Honasan II remarked in his agency’s budget hearing in Congress that the country’s Internet speed is “not so bad” at 3 to 7Mbps.
At an online hearing, House ICT committee chair Victor Yap said there is also a need to specify a neutral agency that would determine the measurement of Internet speed in the country.
Given the increasing role of Internet in communications especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, a member of the House of Representatives is pushing the government and local telcos to bring a minimum of “4G, 30Mbps” mobile speed in the provinces.
Newly appointed DICT assistant secretary Felino Castro V said that while average data connection in the country is at 4 Mbps, the agency is already working on installing free Wi-Fi in public areas across the Philippines that would offer a data connection of at least 10 Mbps.
