Smart is Philippines' leading 5G mobile network, earns 7 wins in Opensignal report

MANILA, Philippines — PLDT Inc. mobile services arm Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) delivers a superior 5G experience to Filipinos as it wins in all seven categories of the first 5G Experience Report for the Philippines by independent mobile analytics firm Opensignal.    

The report*, which covers July 1 to September 28, showed Smart as the outright winner in five out of seven categories, including 5G Availability, 5G Download Speed, 5G Upload Speed, 5G Video Experience, and 5G Games Experience. Opensignal also declared Smart a joint winner in the remaining two categories - 5G Reach and 5G Voice App Experience.      

Impressive margins versus competition

“Smart led Globe by some impressive margins when we compared our users’ 5G experience on both operators,” Sam Fenwick, Opensignal senior analyst, wrote.   

Smart won the 5G Availability category with a score of 11.9%, which means Smart 5G users spent 11.9% of their time with an active 5G connection. This is 3.5 percentage points higher than Globe’s 8.4%.     

On the other hand, Smart clinched the 5G Download Speed category with 178.1 Mbps, which is 78% faster than Globe’s 100.1Mbps. It also led in the 5G Upload Speed category with 18.4Mbps, which is 72.7% faster than Globe’s 10.7Mbps.    

Best 5G video and gaming experience

Smart delivers the best mobile video streaming experience with a score of 77.9 points versus Globe’s 75.7 points on a 100 point scale. According to Opensignal, this indicates a “very consistent experience across all users, video streaming providers and resolutions tested, with fast loading times and almost non-existent stalling.”    

Smart also provides its customers the best 5G gaming experience with a score of 71.9 points on a 100-point scale, 9% higher than Globe’s 66 points. “In most cases, the game was responsive to the actions of the player with most users reporting that they felt like they had control over the game,” noted the Opensignal report.    

Meanwhile, Opensignal found Smart and Globe to be statistically tied in the 5G Reach category, a measure of how mobile users experience the geographical extent of an operator’s 5G network. Smart scored 3.7 points versus Globe’s 3.5 points on a 10-point scale.     

Smart and Globe are also declared joint winners of the 5G Voice App Experience award, with Smart scoring 80.5 points versus Globe’s 79.2 points on a 10-point scale.    

Series of recognitions from independent firms

The recent Opensignal report and awards add to the latest series of recognitions given by independent firms to the Smart network.     

Early this month, Smart won the ‘Best in Test’ award and was cited for its best-rated broadband coverage, user download experience, and latency experience,  by global benchmarking company umlaut. More recently, Ookla cited Smart as the Philippines' fastest 5G network for Q3 2021, with a median 5G download speed that is “nearly twice as fast” as its competitor.    

“These independent reports validate all our hard work unwavering efforts to deliver world-class connectivity to Filipinos and bring the benefits of 5G to our customers. As our 5G shift speeds up, we shall continue to improve our network to empower our nation and unlock unlimited possibilities for the careers, businesses, and passions of our subscribers,” Jane Basas, SVP and head of Consumer Wireless Business at Smart, said.    

Smart now has around 800,000 5G users on its network, which is a 200% increase from the number of Smart 5G users in December 2020. To date, Smart has also fired up over 4,400 5G sites in more than 4,000 locations for the Philippines’ widest 5G coverage.      

Make the Smart move now    

To better serve customers, Smart has introduced pioneering 5G services such as the Signature Plans+, the first postpaid line-up in the country featuring Unlimited 5G access. Smart also introduced the country’s first unli 5G data offers for prepaid subscribers in April. Smart is also gearing up to make available more 5G devices that will allow subscribers to experience next-level speeds for their work, school, business, or entertainment.    

More mobile users may now experience Smart’s fastest and widest 5G network without having to change their mobile number through Mobile Number Portability.

To switch to Smart, simply visit x.smart/switch or head to the nearest Smart Store. Users can also make the Smart move now via the GigaLife App, which is downloadable on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.   

*Opensignal Awards – Philippines: 5G Experience Report, October 2021, based on independent analysis of mobile measurements recorded during the period July 1 – September 28, 2021 © 2021 Opensignal Limited.