OPENSIGNAL CITES UPWARD TREND IN MOBILE EXPERIENCE IN PH

Mobile internet quality in the country improved during the first quarter of the year, with PLDT Inc.’s Smart Communications holding the edge over Globe Telecom, according to crowdsourced data from OpenSignal.

With both PLDT and Globe previously announcing significant investments in their networks, OpenSignal said the Philippines “has been on a strong upward trend in mobile experience.”

“Both operators see significant improvements in their scores across the majority of our measures of the mobile experience,” OpenSignal said in Mobile Network Experience Report on April 2021.

Using data collected from Jan. 1 to March 31 this year, the company said Smart won all seven categories measuring the countrywide mobile internet experience.

These pertain to video experience, gaming, voice app, download speed, upload speed, 4G availability and 4G coverage.

At the same time, OpenSignal noted that Globe rapidly cut into Smart lead in terms of video experience and 4G availability.

Subscribers of both networks also saw a big boost in their average download speeds as both operators aggressively rolled out new infrastructure in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

OpenSignal said Smart’s download speed rose 29.5 percent to 14.8 megabits per second while Globe’s speed rose 16.4 percent to 8.6 Mbps.

In terms 4G availability, Globe’s score rose faster by 2.2 percent to 82.6 percent, closing in on Smart’s 86.1 percent, which went up 0.7 percent.