PH needs faster internet to compete globally – think tank

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines should invest more into improving its internet speed if it wants to keep up with international internet speed standards, think tank Stratbase ADR Institute said in a statement on Friday.

“A fast, robust, and accessible broadband network for our people will be critical in developing the potential of our digital savvy population into a powerhouse of innovators of new digital technologies, and not just as users and consumers,” Stratbase ADR President Dindo Manhit said.

According to network intelligence company Ookla, the Philippines ranked 83rd in terms of mobile internet speeds and 56th in terms of fixed broadband speeds as of May 2024.

“These rankings show how much we still have to catch up in terms of connectivity. This is a clear hindrance to our competitiveness at a time when we are angling to be a middle-income economy,” Manhit said.

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The think tank also urged the national government to put more resources into the country’s digital and internet infrastructure as this will also bring economic growth.

“The government and private sector should align resources and strategies to close this broadband infrastructure gap as this directly impacts the economic performance of the whole economic spectrum of the country,” Manhit added.

Citing 2023 data from the National Telecommunication Commission, the group stressed that Asian countries are investing aggressively in digital infrastructure.

It noted that the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s (DICT) National Broadband Plan was allocated a budget of around P1.9 billion in 2023.

But this amount, when converted to the current exchange rate, is a measly US$ 0.032 billion compared to Indonesia’s $2.06 billion, Malaysia’s $5.1 billion, Singapore’s $2.8 billion, Japan’s and South Korea’s US$22 billion, Hong Kong’s $18 billion, and China’s US$1.4 trillion, it added.
 
“Even Vietnam has surpassed us with its $0.82 billion. That’s saying a lot,” Manhit said.

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The Stratbase ADR Institute likewise said that over the past six years, the government’s connectivity investments in terms of the DICT’s allocation have paled in comparison to the investments of the private sector.

From 2018 to 2023, the DICT only had P43.3 billion pesos. Compared to aggregated disclosures submitted to the PSE and SEC, investments by the country’s top three telcos were approximately P1.079 trillion, according to the think tank.

Still citing Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index as of May 2024, the group underscored that the mobile internet speed of Vietnam was 52.15 Mbps; Singapore, 99.29 Mbps; and Malaysia, 95.66 Mbps while for fixed broadband, Vietnam’s was at 129.01 Mbps; Malaysia’s at 134.44 Mbps; Thailand’s at 235.86 Mbps; and Singapore’s at 289.98 Mbps.