Smart Communications Inc. on Monday said the cost of its mobile data per gigabyte is  below the average cost in the Philippines. 

The wireless arm of PLDT Inc. said its Giga suite of mobile data packages offers mobile data at even lower prices of P11-12.50, or about  $0.22-25 per gigabyte.

This was lower than the  average cost of mobile data in the Philippines of $1.42 per gigabyte based on the  cable.co.uk’s internet pricing study for 2020

The Philippines ranked 60 out of 228 countries and sixth in the Southeast Asian region in terms of least expensive mobile data per gigabyte, according to cable.co.uk. 

India is the cheapest country in which to buy mobile data, with the average cost of 1GB at $0.09. While, the United States is one of the most expensive developed nations for purchasing mobile data, coming in 188th in the world, and with an average 1GB cost of $8 – well above the global average of $5.09

According to Jane Basas, senior vice president and head of Consumer Business at Smart, the design of the Giga suite of offers, including how it is priced, is meant to encourage the GigaLife among Filipinos.

“GigaLife is all about easy access to services they need, so they can enjoy doing more of what they love. As gigabyte becomes common speak for us when referring to our daily data consumption, it made perfect sense for us to espouse the GigaLife for our customers with specific Giga offers attuned to their passions and lifestyle,”  Basas said.

Underpinning this GigaLife and enabling Smart’s over 70 million subscribers to enjoy these services are the massive investments made by Smart and PLDT on their integrated network, particularly on increasing the capacity and expanding the coverage of Smart’s LTE network.

These investments, which include some P260 billion from 2015 to 2019 and target capital expenditures of up to P70 billion or more for 2020, have led to Smart LTE base stations across the country increasing by 15 percent to 28,200 as of end-August.

Smart LTE also continues to be the country’s fastest mobile data network according to third-party analytics firms, such as Ookla and Opensignal.