Philippines mulls minimum mobile broadband speed

21 Aug 2015
00:00

The Philippines' National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will next publish draft rules establishing a minimum speed for mobile broadband.

The regulator plans to publish the draft on Monday and then hold a public consultation over the matter, Rapplerreported.

Last week the regulator signed a memorandum establishing the minimum fixed-line broadband speed at 256kbps and mandating service providers to disclose average data rates in a given location.

Consumer groups have welcomed the change as an important step towards improving the speed and quality of broadband services in the Philippines, though several technology groups have complained that the minimum requirement is still too slow, comparing it to dial-up speeds available in the 1990s.

Now the NTC is also turning its attention to mobile broadband speeds, noting that 90% of internet users in the Philippines are on mobile compared to just 10% on fixed-line services.

According to the report, the minimum speed for mobile services is expected to be about the same as for fixed-line connections.

The fixed and mobile rules are being developed in tandem rather than together because the regulator expects a lot of opposition in the mobile space due to the high population of users, and doing it separately will make it easier to implement the fixed line speed floor.

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