MANILA - The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Tuesday claimed the country's internet connection "is not that bad", amid public complaints over slow speed.

DICT Sec. Gringo Honasan said in a House hearing that even if the Philippines has an average 3-7 Mbps connection, which is slow compared to other countries' internet speed that goes up to 55 Mbps, he believes that it's not as awful as the public say.

“Sa ngayon po, without going into figures, we are not doing too badly. Kaya lang po, naiintindihan natin na napakahirap nito ipaliwanag sa taongb ayan. Sila pumapalo ng 55Mbps, tayo naglalaro parin sa 3-5 Mbps pero hindi na po ito masama," Honasan told lawmakers.

DICT Asec. Emmanuel Caintic supported his chief's statement, saying the country's internet connection can currently reach up to 25.07 Mbps, compared to 2016's maximum which is 7.91 Mbps. Mobile internet speed now can also reach up to 6.95 Mpbs, he added.

He admitted however that the Philippines' neighbor countries have 213.18 Mbps fixed broadband speed, with 56.43 Mbps mobile internet speed.

Caintic said that the Philippines' much slower connection is due to lack of telecommunications infrastructure, explaining that fixed broadbands of other countries require lots of fiber optic cables, and telecommunication towers for fast mobile internet.

Honasan said that to modernize and improve the country's internet quality and speed, the government should launch projects with private firms, like telecom companies.

He said DICT has issued 23 provisional certificates to independent tower companies in a bid to ramp up the roll-out of telco towers in the country.

• DICT ramps up tower build with provisional certificates issuance to tower firms

--Report from Johnson Manabat, ABS-CBN News