While Smart has dominated Opensignal’s mobile network awards in the Philippines in the past few years, both Globe and DITO are catching up nicely against Smart. In fact, Globe did break Smart’s winning streak on overall Video Experience, Games Experience, and Voice App Experience based on Opensignal’s April 2023 report, while DITO is catching up with Smart on download speed experience.

Based on Opensignal’s collated data, Smart’s peak dominance was on April 2021, when it practically swept all of the mobile network awards. Things started to change in October 2021, as DITO becomes part of Opensignal’s data analysis, and that 5G experience is also factored in as well. Paired in factors like government pressuring telco companies to offer better services, and it was a matter of time before Globe, Smart, and DITO became truly competitive against one another, giving their best effort to offer great services to their users.

Comparing previous Opensignal data, DITO has made a significant improvement in download speed experience from October 2021 to April 2023, showing an increase of nearly double to trail behind the download speeds of Smart. Globe, on the other hand, has made improvements when it comes to games experience, overtaking Smart by roughly a point in Opensignal’s April 2023 report.

One of the big factors with Globe’s significant improvements stems down from its investment in 2022, where it claimed to have activated 1,702 new cell sites, upgraded around 13,600 to 4G, and installed 2,267 new 5G sites nationwide. For 2023, Globe is looking to reduce its capex to $1.3 billion and reduce it further in 2024.

Smart, on the other hand, is looking to spend around Php 80-85 billion in capex this year, while DITO is expected to spend Php 27 billion this year.