MANILA— The Philippines' average fixed broadband download speed for the month of March increased to 46.25 Mbps, considered the highest in recent years, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said Saturday, even as it continued to lag behind other parts of the world.

Citing Ookla's Speedtest Global Index, the DICT said the country posted a 7.79 Mbps download speed increase in March from the 38.46 Mbps recorded in February, registering a 20.25 percent jump.

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The country's current internet speed can be considered the fastest since 2016, the agency pointed out.

The index showed the Philippines improved by 11 places but at rank 81, it lags far behind Southeast Asian neighbors Singapore and Thailand, which are ranked 1st and 2nd respectively, and Malaysia in 45th place, among others.

"The March 2021 fixed broadband average download speed increase.... represents a 484.70 percent increase compared to the country’s download speed of 7.91 Mbps back in July 2016," the statement read.

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But the mobile network average download speed for the same month dipped slightly to 25.43 Mbps from 26.24 Mbps in February. It ranked 83rd in the world, dropping by 3 places from the last index.

"There is still a significant increase of 241.80 percent from the download speed of 7.44 Mbps back in July 2016," according to the DICT.

The agency also vowed to intensify its support and monitoring for telcos and internet service providers in a bid to further improve their performance this year.

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The agency in February said the Philippines is ranked 92 out of 140 countries when in comes to average fixed broadband download speeds, according to a separate Ookla report.

The country, on the other hand, is ranked 83 when it comes to mobile internet speed.

During his 5th State of the Nation Address last year, President Rodrigo Duterte told telecommunication providers in the country to ramp up their internet services or face closure.

Duterte also vowed to spend his last 2 years in office improving the telecommunication services in the country with the help of Congress.