What did you do to check your internet speed upon seeing this headline? Okay, maybe after clicking this? Did you go to SpeedTest by Ookla’s website to see if your internet speed checks out with their latest report? Did you try to hop on a video conference to see if there are still delays (not advised)?
A little background: Speedtest by Ookla is a US-based web service that provides free analysis of Internet access performance metrics, such as connection data rate and latency—it took Google 0.40 seconds to load over two million relevant results to my query.
If this internet speedometer is to be believed, we are supposed to be grateful this time for however slow or fast our connection is because this is actually better than speed levels in March when quarantine began.
When Luzon was first placed under community quarantine mid-March, download speeds were at 20.40 megabits per second (Mbps) for fixed broadband and 13.95 Mbps for mobile data, respectively.
Is that really significantly far off from pre-quarantine levels? Well, yes, according to Speedtest by Ookla’s data in February, when average download speeds for fixed broadband was at 30.77 Mbps and for mobile data, at 16.68 Mbps.
The latest figures from July, on the other hand, is slightly better than March’s with fixed broadband rates back at 26.70 Mbps and mobile data at 17.24 Mbps (even better than February statistics).
Of course, you’ll have to be realistic and consider your subscription plans. My fixed broadband connection capped at 30 Mbps is currently at 13.06 Mbps download speed based on a recent Ookla test. So go figure.
One factor, according to the Ookla was the government’s stay-at-home orders, which effectively put everyone in isolation and slumped over their devices, whether for work or for pleasure.
If it makes us feel any better, even lawmakers trying to solve this internet speed problem over a video conference are also suffering from lags and delays.
[READ: Senate tried to address PH’s poor internet connection—but they too had slow internet]
Even President Rodrigo Duterte during his last State of the Nation address lamented the country’s slow internet. Telecommunications companies were warned that there will be expropriation if their service does not improve before 2020 ends, especially as Duterte would like to call Jesus in Bethlehem by December.
Duterte: Kindly improve the services before December. I want to call Jesus Christ to Bethlehem. Better have that line cleared. | @JMAurelioINQ #SONA2020
— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) July 27, 2020
Header photo dated Aug. 17 during a meeting of select Cabinet officials and President Rodrigo Duterte, courtesy of Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque
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Writer: CHRISTIAN SAN JOSE
