Status & Internet

Connectivity
Philippines- an internet monitoring firm recently reported that the Philippines has the slowest
internet speed in the world during the fourth quarter of 2016.

In its latest state of the internet report, cloud service provider and content delivery network
Akamai intelligent platform said the Philippines has the slowest average internet connection
speed in the world and among Asia-Pacific countries with 4.5Mbps.

India followed the Philippines at the bottom rank with 5.6 Mbps.

According to Akamai, all the 15 Asia-Pacific countries had an average connection speed
above 4 Mbps similar to the third quarter. The internet monitoring firm added that all
surveyed countries posted improvements in the fourth quarter except for Hong Kong which
had a negligible 0.1 percent decline. Despite the record low speed in the Philippines, Akamai
said there is potential to improve.

“In the Philippines, there is reason for optimism: as noted in the third quarter

, 2016 State of the Internet Report, the new administration has made faster internet speeds a
national priority,” the report read.

“In November, the government announced plans to cut red tape for cell tower building,
deploy free nationwide broadband and Wi-Fi, and spearhead January 2017 summit aimed at
finding ways to improve connectivity and speeds in the country,” it added.

Meanwhile, South Korea topped the list of countries with the highest internet connection in
the world and Asia-Pacific region. It has the highest average speed of 26.01 Mbps.

Akamai said that despite leading the world in average speeds, Korea still recorded a 0.7
percent decline as compared to the third quarter.

Here are the top 10 countries in the world with high internet connection speed;

1.South Korea 26.1 Mbps

2.Norway 23.6 Mbps
3.Sweden 21.2 Mbps
4.Hong Kong 21.9 Mbps
5.Switzerland 21.2 Mbps
6.Denmark 20.7 Mbps
7.Finland 20.6 Mbps
8.Singapore 20.2 Mbps
9.Japan 19.6 Mbps
10.Netherlands 17.6 Mbps

The United States did not make it to the top 10 as it rank 14 globally with an average internet
speed of 17.2 Mbps.
Manila- Despite improvements, average mobile and fixed-line internet speeds in the
Philippines still fall below the global average, according to a service that tracks access speeds
internationally. Speed test Global Index said that in terms of mobile internet speed, the
Philippines ranks 103rd among 139 surveyed countries. The country’s average mobile internet
download speed of 15.06 Megabits per second was far below the global average of 26.12
Mbps. This was slower than the 15.2 Mbps registered in Zimbabwe, which years ago
experienced economic meltdown under former strongman Rober Mugabe.

The Philippines’ mobile internet was also slower than war-torn Syria’s (19.48 Mbps).

Norway has the fastest mobile internet with a speed (67.54 Mbps), followed by Canada,
Qatar, The Netherlands, and South Korea.

In terms of fixed line internet, the Philippines ranked 101st among 179 countries.

The Philippines’ average speed of 19.51 Mbps was much slower than the global average of
57.91 Mbps.

Bangladesh was slightly ahead of the Philippines at 100th place, while Laos was at 84th.

Singapore was the runaway winner in terms of fixed-line internet as it registered average
speeds of 199.77 Mbps.

The city –state was followed by Hong Kong, Monaco, Romania, and South Korea.

The Philippines is aiming to boost internet access quality with the introduction of a third
major telco player, which can challenge the duopoly of PLDT and Globe.

Mislatel, a joint venture between Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy and China Telecom,
won the contract to roll out the third telco.

Types of internet connection in the Philippines

1. DSL- which stands for Digital Subscriber line is the most basic broadband
connection type using a wire line transmission technology to transmit data over
traditional copper telephone lines already installed to homes and businesses

PROS- The most affordable and has the most availability among all the three. Basically, it’s
the standard connection in the market right now and is the go-to connection for basic to
moderate internet use due to the fact that it doesn’t have a data cap and its connection speed
is decent enough for browsing, streaming, and downloading.

CONS- Higher download speed can be extremely expensive and are mostly packaged as
internet plans for business. To date, the maximum download speed available for consumers is
6 Mbps.

Speed Up to 20 Mbps
Availability 5/5
Streaming/Browsin 3/5
g
Gaming 2/5
Value for the money 2/5

2. Fiber- A state of the art connectivity technology which uses fiber optics to convert
electrical signals that carry data into light then sends it through transparent glass
fibers that are about the diameter of a human hair.

PROS- The download speeds offered by fiber connections are extremely and is basically the
golden standard for internet connections in other countries. Its minimum speed is at least
three times faster than a regular DSL connection with almost the same price range. Whether
you’re just doing simple browsing or gaming, a fiber connection will most likely provide you
with a seamless experience.

CONS- Fiber connection is still in its early stages in the Philippines, thus limiting its
availability to key cities/areas in the country. Limited coverage is a bane for a large number
of Filipino internet users who would not have the opportunity to use the connection for now.

3. Wireless Broadband- This connection provides internet through a radio link

between the customer’s location and the service provider’s facility. Wireless
broadband can be mobile or fixed.

PROS- One of the strongest points of wireless broadband is its portability. You can get access
to the internet anytime anywhere as to that location. It doesn’t have to plugged-in into the
power outlet all the time to function, making it a viable backup in cases of a power outage or
outdoor connectivity.

CONS- Stability isn’t exactly the best in wireless broadband. It uses 4G technology in
transmitting data to the devices, but it isn’t as reliable as a wired connection (DSL and Fiber).
Since it’s greatly dependent on mobile internet, any kind of obstruction can affect its
reception.

Another downside to wireless broadband is that service to providers set a certain data cap to
their subscriptions. Heavy video streaming and gaming aren’t really suitable for this type of
connection.

Internet connectivity has demonstrated benefits for end users in terms of economic
opportunity, education, health, and empowerment. Unfortunately, citizens have access to the
internet, and internet adaption rates have begun to decline.

Number of Global Internet Users

(billions)
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 14 15 16 o
19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

Column3

A wide range of governments, companies, and civil society organizations are experimenting
with new ways to connect more people to the internet. Recent research has revealed that
promoting adaptation is a more complex problem than initially thought. Surveys conducted in
both the developing and the developed world consistently find that lack of perceived barriers
that are just as important as network availability and cost. These insights underscore that
interventions that promote adaptation must addressed user-base concerns as well as provider-
base concerns. To paraphrase the movie field of dreams, it is simply not true if you build it,
they will come.

To date, however, little efforts has been made to catalog efforts to connect more people to the
internet in a systematic manner, which tends to bias any assessments in favor of success
stories. Moreover, projects to date have made little attempt to assess their effectiveness
empirically. The scant data that exists is ad hoc and does not lend itself to cross-project
comparisons and tend to value internet access as a value in and of itself instead of studying
whether it promotes more substantive outcomes, such as economic development, education,
health care, and gender equality. The result is that governments seeking to promote greater
internet connectivity and development banks deciding how much support to provide are left
to try to separate the wheat from the chaff based more on conjecture than fact.

In android, by using connectivity manager class we can easily determine whether the network
or internet connected or not and also we can determine the type of internet connection
currently available i.e. whether it’s mobile data or Wi-Fi. To get the internet connection
status, our app must acquire the internet and access network state permissions. In android, we
can determine the internet connection status easily by using get active network info method
of connectivity manager object.