PLDT, Inc. and its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc. obtained the top scores in Ookla’s speed testing study covering the the first half of the year.
Ookla, which surveys global Internet speeds, said PLDT had a speed score of 17.31 — with average download speeds of 22.84 Mbps and average upload speeds of 23.45 Mbps — making it the top provider in the fixed network speed category during the first half.
PLDT was followed by Sky with a 10.89 speed score; SmartBro at 9.79; and Globe Telecom, Inc. at 6.58.
The fixed network award is based on 29,076,090 user-initiated speed tests nationwide for the same period.
Smart emerged as the fastest mobile network provider with a speed score of 14.98, with average download speeds of 17.25 Mbps and average upload speeds of 7.65 Mbps.
Globe scored 9.93 during the period.
The survey is based on 2,118,464 user-initiated tests taken with Speedtest on LTE-capable devices.
“It is our pleasure to recognize Smart as the Fastest Mobile Network and PLDT as the Fastest Fixed Network in the Philippines based on our rigorous analysis. This award is a testament to PLDT and Smart’s exceptional performance, as experienced by their own customers, in Q1 and Q2 2018,” said Jamie Steven, Executive Vice President at Ookla.
PLDT said it is aggressively rolling out its fiber broadband services, including both fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and hybrid fiber technologies that will deliver fiber-speed broadband to virtually all DSL subscribers by 2019.
During the first three months of the year, PLDT’s fiber-powered broadband network reached 4.4 million homes, up from 4.0 million at end-2017. In the same period, PLDT also increased its capacity to 1.4 million lines from about 1.0 million and raised its total fiber footprint to about 187,000 km.
PLDT has set a P58 billion capital expenditure this year. The firm’s capex from 2016 though 2020 is expected to reach $5 billion.
For its part, Smart is also broadening its Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) roll out.
“This award is proof that our investments in upgrading our network to improve the mobile internet experience of Filipinos all over the country are paying off,” said Mario G. Tamayo, PLDT and Smart senior vice president for Network Planning and Engineering.
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.

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