PLDT, INC. is proposing internationally adopted standards to measure the improvements made by the telecommunications sector by December.
“We suggested the adoption of certain standards that are used by international independent rating agencies like Ookla or OpenSignal to measure us. In this regard, we are thinking of submitting an ideation paper to the government along these lines,” PLDT Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer Manuel V. Pangilinan said in a statement e-mailed to reporters on Monday.
In his fifth State of the Nation Address on July 27, President Rodrigo R. Duterte threatened to close or expropriate telco firms if they fail to improve their services by December this year.
Mr. Pangilinan vowed to improve PLDT’s services and further expand the coverage of its 4G and 3G networks.
“As of now, we have more than 95% of the population covered by 4G and 3G networks. We will try to cover higher than that, maybe up to 99%,” he said in a recent briefing.
Ookla, an internet speed surveyor, ranks mobile and fixed broadband speeds from countries around the world on a monthly basis.
“Internet measurements made with (Ookla’s) Speedtest occur at the times and in the places that are most relevant to the person taking the test. Each time a test is initiated, a snapshot of what the internet looks like in that place and time is recorded. When aggregated together, these individual experiences represent the typical internet performance for a given location,” Ookla explained in its Website.
Wireless coverage mapping firm OpenSignal said its measurements are “designed to capture as accurately as possible the experience of typical real users and are subject to all the factors that affect real user traffic, representing a wide base of users and devices.”
“Our scientific analysis processes these measurements to create the most accurate possible picture of user experience and how it varies between operators, regions and countries, as far as possible based only on measurements from real users,” it also said in its website.
PLDT reported recently that its second-quarter attributable net income grew 15.8% to P6.37 billion from P5.5 billion posted in the same period last year, driven by the surge in data and broadband revenues amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The telco giant said it would focus on LTE expansion, transport or backhaul rollout, and ADSL upgrade to fiber in the second half of the year.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Arjay L. Balinbin
