CAMIA: Latest Mobile Network Report in the Philippines in August 2018

As the Philippine government tries to lure a third mobile operator into the telecoms market, two of the operators are continuing their efforts to build out their 4G services, expand their LTE coverage and gradually improve mobile broadband speeds.

It has been six months since OpenSignal released its Philippines Mobile Network Report. By collecting and analyzing data from May 1, 2018, we compared the 3G and 4G data results of two mobile operators in the Philippines, Globe Telecom and PLDT Smart Communications.

As was the case 6 months ago, Globe and Smart shared the 4G Availability and 4G Download Speed ​​awards. Smart still holds the lead in LTE Download Speed, but Globe has shrunk significantly in 4G Availability. Smart has narrowed the gap in 4G Availability to less than 4 percentage points, and Smart’s growth in 4G access is quite impressive. 18 months ago, Smart’s 4G Availability score was below 40%.

We haven’t seen any changes in 4G download speeds for any of the operators, but overall download speeds have improved significantly. Over the past six months, Globe’s overall average download speed has increased by nearly 14% to 5Mbps, while Smart’s overall average download speed has increased by 29% to 7.5 Mbps. Smart’s overall speed increase is due to its rapidly increasing 4G availability, so users are able to get 4G connections more frequently.

In the 4G latency metric, which measures the network's response time, with lower scores being better, Smart's 4G latency has increased by more than 5 milliseconds over the past six months, while Globe's increase is roughly the same.

(Awards List)

4G download speed: Average LTE download speed of Globe and Smart, with Smart clearly in the lead.

3G download speed: Average download speed of Globe and Smart. Globe's 3G download speed is slightly faster than Smart.

Overall download speed: Average download speeds for 3G and 4G networks for Globe and Smart, with Smart having faster overall speeds than Globe. Overall speeds factor into not only 3G and LTE speeds, but also the availability of various network technologies. Operators with lower LTE availability tend to have lower overall speeds because their users have to spend more time connecting to slower 3G networks.

4G upload speed: Average upload speed for each operator on Globe and Smart’s LTE connections, with Smart having a clear advantage.

4G latency: Average LTE latency (ms) for Globe and Smart. Lower scores are a sign of more responsive networks. Latency is roughly the same for both.

3G latency: Average LTE latency for Globe and Smart in milliseconds. Lower scores are a sign of a more responsive network, with Smart’s network being faster.

4G availability: The ratio of time that Globe and Smart have access to LTE connectivity, with Globe users accessing 4G networks more often.

(Table of regional winners for OpenSignal metrics)

If third-party mobile operators enter the Philippine telecommunications market, will it rewrite the market structure? But in any case, the participation of third-party mobile operators is a good thing for Filipino netizens, because it means there are more network services to choose from.

Source: CAMIA