If you read OpenSignal’s previous State of LTE report, you know pretty well that the Philippines once again appears to be lagging behind other Asian countries and regions like India, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan both in terms of LTE speed and coverage. What may have escaped your attention, however, is that the country could’ve fared better had Smart Communications posted better results in the testing conducted by OpenSignal, something Smart’s rival, Globe Telecom, pointed out in a recent press release.
“Based on OpenSignal’s State of LTE report for the third quarter of 2015, Globe Telecom’s LTE download speed is at 10 Mbps, double its competition’s LTE download speed of only 5 Mbps,” Globe wrote.
“While Globe Telecom’s download speed of 10 Mbps is considered adequate, its competition’s download speed of 5 Mbps dragged down the Philippines’ average LTE download speed to 8Mbps,” the local telco added. According to OpenSignal, the company also leads in 4G LTE coverage, with Globe delivering an active LTE signal 41 percent of the time, compared to 36 percent from Smart.
The Philippines could’ve fared better had Smart Communications posted better results in the testing conducted by OpenSignal, Globe Telecom pointed out in a recent press release.
It is important to note that both telcos’ averages are a long ways behind carriers in South Korea, where subscribers can connect to LTE networks 97 percent of the time, the highest among countries surveyed. In addition, Globe’s 10 Mbps connection is roughly a quarter of the speed (38 Mbps) Singaporeans typically get from StarHub, the fastest LTE provider in the world based on OpenSignal’s research.
The data was collected anonymously between June and August 2015 from hundreds of thousands of smartphone users who installed OpenSignal’s Android and iOS apps, the London-based startup revealed.
Curious, I decided to run OpenSignal’s Android app to find out how fast (or slow) Smart’s LTE network is in Ortigas Center. The screenshots below should give you an idea. I can’t say I’m surprised; those figures accurately reflect how frustrating my experience has been as a longtime Smart subscriber.
Slow is an understatement.
Image via The Guardian
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