The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Tuesday, (July 13) welcomed the country’s continued internet speed upturn for both fixed broadband and mobile Internet last month.

Latest figures (June 2021) from global speed monitoring firm Speedtest by Ookla showed the country’s average download speeds for fixed broadband is now 66.55 megabits per second (Mbps), a 6.82 increase from the 59.73 Mbps speed recorded in May 2021.

For mobile Internet, the June 2021 speed reached 32.84 Mbps, which showed an increase of 0.86 from the recorded 31.98 Mbps in May.

“This is a welcome development in our efforts to prepare for full participation in the global digital economy,” according to DICT Secretary Gregorio “Gringo” B. Honasan II.

A year ago, President Rodrigo R. Duterte challenged telcos to shape up and ordered state regulators to cut red tape in issuing cell tower permits.

At the beginning if this month, the DICT and the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) also revised and expanded Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No 001, s. 2021 to harmonize the provisions of the original policy and Republic Act No. 11494 or the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act.

The JMC reduced procedural delays in securing permits and documentary requirements for common towers.

The policy shortened the timeline to the target period of 16 days compared to the original 214 days. It also brought down permits from 30 to 8 and documentary requirements from 86 to 35.

“For the rest of 2021 and in the succeeding years, DICT shall continue to support the industries for telecommunications and information services to ensure our Internet speed rankings will continue its upward climb,” Secretary Honasan pledged.


Source: Manila Bulletin (https://mb.com.ph/2021/07/13/dict-welcomes-continued-ph-internet-speeds-upturn-in-june/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dict-welcomes-continued-ph-internet-speeds-upturn-in-june)