Overview of the current state of technology in the Philippines

The Philippines adopts the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
definition of information and communications technology (ICT) which refers to a combination of
manufacturing and service industries that electronically captures, transmits, and displays data and
information. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), ICT access in the
Philippines is much more advanced in mobile cellular phones than in fixed telephones and the Internet.
It also said that every Filipino’s owned one or more cellular phone. In terms of broadband connection,
broadband services in the Philippines is poor. It is reported that the Philippines has the slowest average
download speed in Asia. The factors affecting the poor broadband connection in the country are lack of
competition due to the presence of barriers to the entry, lack of infrastructure such as national
broadband network and the weak and ineffective regulation.

Reference:https://cpbrd.congress.gov.ph/images/PDF%20Attachments/Facts%20in
%20Figures/FF2016-11_ICT.pdf

In terms of preparedness for technological change in the next few years, the Philippines
improved. According to the article “Philippines climbs in technological readiness ranking” by Ian
Nicholas Cigaral (2018), the Philippines climbed to the 55 th spot out of 82 economies tracked in
the latest Technological Readiness Ranking published by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The
Philippines is the 4th most tech-ready economy in Southeast Asia.

Reference:https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/06/06/1822109/philippines-climbs-
technological-readiness-ranking