Metro Manila 5G speeds among lowest in Asia Pacific, but uplift over 4G remains high

Metro Manila’s 5G speeds ranked relatively low among the largest cities in Asia Pacific, according to a study conducted by mobile network analytics firm OpenSignal, though its uplift over 4G remains high.

Out of the 11 cities that were part of the study, the capital of the Philippines came 8th for 5G download speeds, averaging 150.7mbps. Seoul recorded the fastest speeds at 453.1mbps, followed by Kuala Lumpur at 376.6mbps and Auckland at 280.7mbps.

Meanwhile, Metro Manila came close to the bottom at 10th for upload speeds, with an average of 14.4mbps. Kuala Lumpur took the top spot in this category with a speed of 52.8mbps, exchanging places with Seoul, which recorded 40.6mbps.

Seoul also provided the best 5G experience for playing real-time, online multiplayer games, recording a score of 87.2. Metro Manila, in contrast, performed the worst in this category, with a score of 66.6.

As for video streaming, Taipei secured the top spot, posting a score of 81.3. Metro Manila came in at eighth, with a score of 71.6.

If it’s any consolation though, Metro Manila’s 5G recorded the highest uplift over 4G. The city’s 5G download speeds were up to 7.3 times faster than its 4G, coming in second behind Kuala Lumpur. Metro Manila also posted the best improvement in video experience, with 5G being up to 54% faster than 4G.

“So far we’ve examined the 5G experience alone – but for 5G to provide consumers with compelling reasons to adopt the new technology, it needs to offer superior performance to what users have already been experiencing with 4G,” said OpenSignal.

In terms of availability, Metro Manila placed 7th, with users only being able to connect to 5G about 18.2% of the time. In terms of reach, meanwhile, the capital placed 5th, with a score of 6.0 on a 10 point scale. The score reportedly quantifies the proportion of locations the surveyors were able to connect to 5G versus those that they weren’t.

OpenSignal does note that the 5G experience can change over time – and not always in a linear fashion – depending on several factors such as deployment, traffic, and the type of spectrum used, to name a few examples. – Rappler.com