Smart cited as having best download speed in Phl

PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. offers the country’s best download speed, according to the latest report from Germanybased mobile network benchmarking firm P3 communications GmbH.

The crowdsource-based study, which included 121 million samples from 104,000 users collected from October to December 2018, showed Smart achieved the highest user download speed score with 98 points, compared to its nearest competitor’s 68 points.

“This latest award is further proof that our continuous network upgrades across the country are paying off, and that our customers are feeling the benefits whenever they use mobile data to connect with their families, to access online services like banking and e-commerce, or to stream videos on their phones,” PLDT-Smart senior vice president for network planning and engineering Mario Tamayo said.

“This year, we are further investing in our networks to build on that competitive edge,” Tamayo added.

PLDT said the recognition from P3 is the latest in a string of citations received by the company and its wireless subsidiary on network superiority.

Third-party firms Ookla, Opensignal and Tutela earlier released their respective crowdsource-based studies on internet services in the country, and found Smart’s wireless network to be superior in terms of speed and latency than that of competition.

Ookla’s Q1-Q2 and Q3Q4 2018 reports found that PLDT and Smart are the country’s fastest fixed and mobile networks, while Smart has consistently led in terms of 4G speeds in studies by Opensignal since 2017.

On the other hand, Canadian crowdsourced mobile data company Tutela said Smart users were twice as likely to experience “excellent” data connections, which are needed for heavy data uses like video viewing.

Supporting PLDT’s network performance is its expansive fiber network, which now spans over 244,000 kilometers and also supports Smart’s mobile network by providing high-capacity links to cellular base stations.