MANILA - LTE wireless internet speed and coverage in the country improved last month compared to the same period last year, a global report said Monday.

LTE coverage was 58.83 percent in Oct. 2017 from 44.80 percent in Oct. 2016, while download speed increased to 8.23 mbps from 7.27 mbps in the same period, according to the “State of LTE Report 2017” released by OpenSignal, a global wireless mapping initiative.

OpenSignal said LTE speed depends on many factors such the congestion of users connected to the same network.

Mobile and fixed internet connectivity also improved this year after President Rodrigo Duterte’s urged Internet Service Providers (ISP) to improve services, according to SpeedTest, a global broadband Internet speed testing service.

Earlier this month, the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Eliseo Rio said the government is planning to build its own gateway to provide faster and cheaper internet service.

South Korea is still the leading country when it comes to 4G availability with 96.69 percent, while Singapore bagged the top spot for internet download speed with 46.64 mbps.

LTE availability ranking:
1. Korea - 96.69 %
2. Japan - 94.11 %
3. Norway - 88.66 %
4. Hong Kong - 87.23 %
5. United States - 86.94 %

Download speed ranking:
1. Singapore - 46.64 mbps
2. South Korea 45.85 mbps
3. Norway - 42.03 mbps
4. Hungary - 42.00 mbps
5. Netherlands - 38.91 mbps