Speedcheck: Philippines at Bottom 20 of 89 Countries in Global Speed-Price Index Study

Twitter: @edd1819, Instagram: @bluestar0910, Facebook: SDN — Science, Digital & Current Affairs

Some insights from the study:

• Top 3 countries with the highest SPI: Israel, Italy, and Fiji
• USA, Japan, Germany not even in the TOP 25!
• High speeds at low prices are definitely in the minority — only found in 14 countries.
• Only 24 countries even reach an SPI value above the global average. 🤦🏻‍♂️

By EDD K. USMAN

Short URL: https://wp.me/paaccn-9Hq

(SDN) —– For quite sometime Filipino internet users have been complaining of slow speed and feeling short-changed for the money they pay for their connectivity plans.

What’s called the value-for-money, or the lack of it. A bang-for-your-buck in today’s digital parlance. The quality of service you get for your money.

There’s improvement in speed lately, perhaps driven by emerging competition from new telcos offering connectivity. Say, DITO Telecommunity (the Philippines’ third major telco player) as well as Converge ICT which offers fiber internet.

Used to be that there was what Filipinos dubbed — grudgingly — the duopoly of PLDT and Globe Telecom. Not anymore.

Are Filipinos long-suffering from having one of the slowest in the internet race in Asia now reaping the digital fruits of the competition in the telecoms industry? Maybe yes, maybe no.

In any case, here’s a global study conducted by Speedcheck its CEO Dr. Fred Lipfert relayed to SDN — Science & Digital News — the Speed-Index Price (SPI) study of 89 countries, including, yes, the Philippines.

What the global study is about

“In this insightful investigation by Speedcheck, we analyzed the mobile broadband speed experienced by the users of our service in 89 countries across five continents and compared them against the prices consumers are paying for data in each country.

‘We reflected the results in our new Speed-Price Index (SPI) international ranking – a strong indicator of the value-for-money that consumers are getting for their mobile data when compared internationally.

“The index increases as the speed increases and/or as the cost of data reduces. Thus, the higher the index the more value for money the mobile user enjoys,” Lipfert and Telecoms Consultant Gerard Kearney pointed out as they analyzed the study on mobile broadband in their joint article titled “Mobile Data — The Price of Speed”.

Simply stated, correct me if I’m off target, the SPI study is a deep dive into the speed and the money users pay — a “value-for-money investigation” for their mobile broadband connectivity. Is the money people are paying worth the speed they are getting?

Anyways, while the top three in the list of 89 countries surveyed are Israel (because of the “almost impossibly low price Israeli consumers pay for their data, at just $0.09/GB…on average”), Italy, and Fiji, the Philippines wallows at the bottom 20, its ranking at 78.

Here’s the Top 20 Countries:

And the complete global ranking of the 89 countries in the study:

Note that for the 10-member Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN), the Philippines’ neighbors, four countries are higher in ranking than the Philippines, such as Vietnam (ranked 38), Malaysia (41), Thailand (62), and Indonesia (63).

The Speedcheck report has seven separate categories, essentially categorized regionally into continents. Lipfert and Kearney said they sourced “various prices per GB across all 89 countries…from Cable.co.uk’s worldwide mobile data price comparison for 2021.”

• The Americas
• Europe
• Asia + Oceania
• Middle East
• Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS – former USSR)
• Africa
• Global Analysis

“For each region, we include a table listing the top SPI-ranked countries in the region. In addition, each table incorporates the following per-country metrics: download speed as measured by Speedcheck users, our regional SPI ranking of the country, and, for comparison, the global SPI ranking as well,” the authors explained.

Above Excel document places the Philippines at 79th rank.

If you want to know, learn more about the nitty-gritty of the Speedcheck study, then head on to the article “Mobile Data: The Price of Speed” cited in this simple piece. (/)

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All images/charts courtesy of Speedcheck.