The Philippines has ranked fourth worldwide in terms of improvement in video experience this year, according to Opensignal. 

In its latest study, “The State of Mobile Network Experience in 2020: One year into the 5G Era” Opensignal said  the Philippines’ Video Experience score improved by 32 percent compared to 2019, ranking fourth worldwide in terms of percentage improvement next to Thailand, Nepal and Senegal.

Video Experience measures the average video experience of Opensignal users on 3G and 4G networks. It involves measuring real-world video streams, and takes picture quality, video loading time and stall rate into account. 

The study featured measurements from more than 43 million devices collected from Jan. 1 to March 30 in 2019 and 2020.

The country’s mobile video experience has been improving in recent years as operators continue to roll out LTE nationwide. 

PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) has set the pace for this trend by consistently posting the best mobile video experience in the Philippines since Opensignal launched the metric in 2019.

In Opensignal’s latest Philippines Mobile Network Experience Report² released in April, which covered the period Nov. 1, 2019 to Jan. 29, 2020, Smart also surpassed competition in most metrics, including Video Experience, where Smart posted a score of 55, well ahead of competition’s 39.8.

Our continuous investments in our network and our ongoing upgrades and expansion projects across the country have allowed us to provide our customers with the best mobile data experience,” Mario G. Tamayo, PLDT-Smart senior vice president for Network Planning and Engineering said.

As of end-March, Smart increased the number of 4G/LTE base stations to 26,000, up 6 percent from end-2019 and 60 percent more than end-2018. 

PLDT’s fiber infrastructure, which supports Smart’s network by providing high-capacity links to LTE base stations, is now at 338,500 kilometers nationwide, 5 percent more than end-2019 and up nearly 40 percent from end-2018.

 In April, Smart further increased the capacity of its LTE network by reallocating its assigned 1800 Mhz frequency from 2G to 4G/LTE. As a result, 3,785 base stations of Smart have also been providing additional capacity for its LTE network.

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