The Philippines has the slowest Internet speed among countries of Asia Pacific. With a miserable average speed of 3.7mbps, this clumsy speed has already fed us ontime information and get every Filipino on a bandwagon of democratic voices through social media participation. But if this average speed is already “slow” for us, how much more few years ago when we were yet in a glint of using the Internet.

Most of us knew Nokia, a cellphone company which was popular that time. Most of us was already stunned on the phone’s ability to transmit message from one phone to another. But one day, when we demanded a more sophisticated communication and information medium, we were given 2G (second generation)—a kind of network which can transmit data over the internet.

2G is a slow network but it gave us a huge light of seeing the world virtually. Its speed ranges 1-100kbps. Besides slow, it was also costly. That time, our telecommunication companies charged us according to the minutes we spent in the Internet. Perhaps, they never offer any unlimited or bulk (per kilobyte) data allocation then. But even it was slow and costly, we were patient enough and spend lot for it because that time it was new.

I was in high school when I learned how to browse the Internet over my phone. What is internet that time?! Not everyone gets access into it compared today. Just to gain access, since I was a prepaid user, I have to top-up a worth 15 peso load in the near Sari-sari store for a gawky 2G internet connection for 45 minutes. I thought, that was already fast until I knew 3G.

3G and DSL brought us a huge change when it comes to our Internet delight. Good quality videos on video-sharing sites such as YouTube buffers faster as before. Unlimited and bulk internet promos were made. Internet cafes thrived in the cities as telecom companies have their enhancements in their cell towers. Because of this innovation, we go with the trail of social media engagement.

We first know Friendster before Facebook have gained an Internet popularity. Since only the NCR and other major cities have first gained access into a ‘faster’ internet, most of the people who reside in the city had their accounts in social media while we in the province were a bit unacquainted in it—not until foreign cellphone companies unfold their businesses in the country.

Android phones then became popular and affordable to every Filipino. We thank for it because even its low-end models are already data and wifi capable—making connections to ‘information superhighways’ easier and possible for usual users.

Our lifestyle then associated with ‘sharing’ where almost all of our actions and sentiments were broadcasted in the Internet. Consequently, cybercrime occurred, students learned to plagiarize through search engines and youth became isolated in their  homes. 

Our ISPs (internet service providers)  then  gave us 4G (fourth generation) and LTE (long term  evolution) which assured us an internet speed of upto 42 mbps. But this lame promotion disgusted us because the internet speed was still out of what was disclosed.

Because more users engaged with the internet, our ISPs then implemented ‘data throttling’, the term they use for limiting the users data usage according to what was stated in their ‘fair use  and policy’. This created a huge outrage among netizens—calling  ‘unlimited promo’ as a big lie.

As our struggle for a speedy internet continues, we still gained groundbreaking records in the Internet. We were dubbed as selfie and social media capital of the world and the holder of the most tweeted hashtag in Twitter through AlDub.

Beyond the records we gained and internet speed we have today, we are a bit far than yesterday. But, we cannot deny the fact that behind the evolution of the country’s internet speed, we  are still very late when it comes to the  race for faster internet speed in the world.