Philippines Mobile Quality Report

Introduction

The Philippine mobile market comprises several operators, of which three have their own networks with nation-wide coverage: Dito, Globe and Smart. Thus, the network situation for these MNOs acts as a trustworthy barometer of the network situation in the country. A good knowledge of the network situation also allows the customers to perform fully informed decisions.

The objective of this report is to provide a summary of the network situation in Philippines for these three MNOs.

This report provides a quick overview of the network situation based on the following KPIs:

• Disconnection time: daily average minutes that the users from a MNO have had only emergency coverage or no coverage.
• 4G and 5G time: percentage of time that the users from a MNO have had 4G and, if available, 5G coverage (including 5G NSA and 5G SA).
• 5G penetration and usage: percentage of users that have 5G connectivity, percentage of time in 5G and percentage of active usage of 5G.
• Network status in the Common Coverage Area: an analysis of the network status, based on the signal strength and the signal quality, for the areas where all MNOs provide coverage.
• Call type: percentage of use of each call type by operator. This shows which technologies each of their customers primarily use.
• Mobile network latency: percentage of customers on different latency ranks. The ranks are selected according to several performance thresholds.

Summary

The Philippine telecommunications market is controlled by three operators with their own networks that together hold almost 100% of the market: Dito, Globe and Smart.

In this competition to increase its customer base, Smart is the number 1 operator in the Philippines with a base of 60.76 million subscribers. Following closely are Globe, with 57 million subscribers, and Dito, constantly growing, with 13 million subscribers.

The network performance of each operator has its differences compared to the others. We will analyze the performance of each of them:

If we take into account the disconnection time, Globe is the operator that remains without coverage for the least amount of time.

Dito is the operator that offers 4G coverage to its users the longest, with 96% of the time, while Globe is the one that offers the best quality of 4G coverage, both in area and in measurements.

If we look at the types of calls, Dito is the operator in which users use VoLTE the most in their calls (97%).

Finally, regarding latency, in general terms, Dito has better latency than its competitors, with 75% of its measurements being rated as at least good latency.

The main key figures are the following:

• The three main operators (Dito, Globe, Smart) in Philippines provide 4G coverage to their customers at least 85% of the time.
• 5G is not yet extended in the country and the number of 5G users is very low. The MNO with the most 5G clients is Smart (13%), followed by Globe with 11% and Dito with 8%.
• Globe is the operator that offers the best quality of 4G coverage, both in area and measurements.
• VoLTE calls are especially relevant for Dito, accounting for at least 97% of total calls.
• Dito is the operator that has the best latency for a decent experience in all possible types of use, with 75% of measurements rated at least good.

Methodology

In the following pages an in-depth description of each analyzed KPI can be found, including the methodology and rationale behind them.

At a more general level, the following paragraph describes the data collection methodology.

At a more general level, Weplan Analytics collects crowdsourced data from more than 200 million devices in 31 countries. For this analysis, 1.100 million measurements collected between July and September 2024 were used.

The following map shows the density of measurements taken throughout Philippines by Weplan Analytics.

As the three aforementioned MNOs serve their networks to other parties (such as VMNOs, due to roaming agreements or as part of emergency coverage) they have been filtered by the network provider reported in the SIM card.

More details about the methodology can be found here.

Connectivity

Connectivity: Daily disconnection time

The following graphic shows the disconnection time as the average number of minutes that each customer of each MNO experiences disconnections throughout the day.

Disconnection time includes moments when a customer has no coverage at all (such as underground parkings, inside elevators, so far away from an antenna that connection is not possible...) or moments when a customer only has emergency coverage, that is, the ability to perform only emergency calls.

This disconnected time may (and, in most cases, will) be discontinuous, and is the average of the daily disconnection time for all users.

Globe is the operator that have the shortest daily disconnection time with only 55 minutes per day.

Connectivity: 4G and 5G time

As a result of the development of 5G technology, legacy technologies such as the 2G and 3G networks are being turned off with the aim of freeing up electromagnetic spectrum to make room for more modern technologies such as 4G and 5G. This is because the frequencies are limited, so it is necessary to turn off the old ones so that the new ones can occupy those frequencies. Thus, one of the main objectives of operators is to guarantee at least adequate 4G coverage, and for those that already meet this objective, the focus turns to 5G.

Dito has the best 4G or higher coverage time for its customers, maintaining this coverage 96% of the time.

5G penetration and usage

Percentage of 5G users by carrier

The percentage of 5G clients in Philippines is still very low, with Smart being the one with the most 5G clients (13%), followed by Globe with 11% and Dito with 8%.

Percentage of time spent under 5G coverage for 5G clients by carrier

If we look at the time in which each user has 5G coverage available, Smart is the winner with 54% of the time with 5G coverage available. It is followed by Globe with 50% and Dito with 41%.

Percentage of 5G usage time for 5G users

When a user connects to the 5G network, they can do so under a Stand Alone (5G SA, pure 5G) or Non Stand Alone (5G NSA, 5G supported by the LTE network) connection.

When a user connects to the 5G NSA network, they can use only the LTE part (although they still see on their terminal that it is connected to 5G) or also the 5G part. Connecting in one way or another is mainly due to the use and capacity of the network, with the 5G network being prioritized for intensive data uses (e.g. streaming, video calls, video games, etc.) and leaving the 4G network for less intensive uses (e.g. messaging, low consumption web browsing, etc.).

The following graph shows the percentage of time that users are connected to a 5G network and are also using 5G technology.

If we emphasize the time that each user uses the available 5G, Dito users use the 5G network 41% of the time, followed by Globe with 9% and Smart with 6%.

4G and 5G network status

There are two main network performance indicators used to address the network status: signal strength and signal quality. Each technology has its own measurements, but two great categories can be established:

• Very Good: the network performance for all usages should be excellent.
• Good: the network performance for all usages may present occasional difficulties but is good overall.
• Fair: most network network-dependent usages (such as calls or data usage) will have at least a decent performance.
• Degraded: network usage may be unstable and unreliable but allows for basic usage such as calls with acceptable quality and very slow data transfer rate.
• Very Degraded: apart from emergency calls network usage is nearly impossible.

There are two ways to analyze these categories: by percentage of covered area or by percentage of measurements.

Most measurements take place in urban areas, where coverage is better.

However, it is important to note that in most countries the majority of the territory is not urban, so the percentage of area with a problematic network situation may be different from the percentage of measurements with a problematic network situation.

In general, all operators offer decent coverage in the common coverage area in Philippines.

Globe is the operator with the best results with 78% of the area rated as at least fair. Following are Smart with 67% and Dito with 63%.

If you look at measurements instead of area, the general situation is very similar.

Globe is the operator with the best results with 76% of the measurements are classified as, at least, fair. It is followed by Smart and Dito tied with 67%.

Call type percentage

Although 2G and 3G technologies allow the use of data, the development of 4G and 5G has left these technologies largely relegated to use in phone calls.

However, not all customers can benefit from VoLTE calls, since in order for them to be used, the following conditions must be met:

1. Your MNO must provide 4G and VoLTE.
2. They must have a phone capable of making VoLTE calls and a mobile plan that includes VoLTE.
3. Your phone must be approved by the MNO and the manufacturer to make VoLTE calls.

The last condition means that a customer, without changing their phone, can have VoLTE with one operator, but not have it with another. When a 4G connected customer without VoLTE capability (for any reason) attempts to make a call, a handover process to the 2G or 3G network occurs.

This process, depending on the method applied, is called CSFB (the most common) or SRVCC. In addition, there is also VoWiFi (Voice over Wi-Fi) technology, which is used when a Wi-Fi network is available.

VoLTE technology is the most used by Dito customers, with at least 97% of calls using this technology. It is followed by Globe with 70% and Smart with 61%.

Latency status

Latency is the measurement of how much time it takes for the information to be transmitted between the user and the network. A lower latency means a faster, and smoother network experience, whereas a higher latency means that the network experience will not be as good, or even unusable. This makes latency a good indicator for user experience. We have divided latency in four main groups:

• Excellent latency: very smooth user experience, even with the most data-intensive usage, such as gaming or 4K streaming.
• Good latency: good user experience, although gaming may not be as fluid and 4K may present occasional problems.
• Degraded latency: mediocre user experience. Gaming and 4K are either uncomfortable or impossible, videochat may present noticeable lag, messaging with multimedia may take a long time to load and loading a web may be slow.
• Bad latency: essentially unusable network. Only the lightest usage, such as sending messages without multimedia works decently.

There are some differences in latency between operators.

Dito presents the best results with 75% of their measurements rated as good or excellent. It is followed by Globe with 70% and Smart with 57% of measurements rated as good or excellent.