Ookla: Metro Manila, Cebu lag behind Asia's fastest digital nomad hubs

Cebu posted the lowest mobile speeds and highest jitter among 13 ASEAN destinations.

Courtesy: Ookla

PH cities lag region's mobile speeds

Metro Manila and Cebu recorded some of the slowest median mobile download speeds among 13 Southeast Asian digital nomad destinations in the second quarter of 2026, according to Speedtest Intelligence data from Ookla.

Data from Ookla

Metro Manila posted a median mobile download speed of 75.57 Mbps, while Cebu recorded 55.48 Mbps, the lowest figure among all 13 destinations tracked.

Both cities sit well below regional leader Da Nang, Vietnam, which topped the list at 215.56 Mbps, followed by Phuket, Thailand, at 167.62 Mbps and Bangkok at 167.27 Mbps.

Despite the gap, the data indicates mobile speeds improved in most of the region: median download speeds rose year-over-year in 12 of the 13 destinations tracked. Ookla said mobile speeds overall remain satisfactory for remote workers across every destination in the study.

Cebu also posted the highest mobile jitter in the region, at 18 milliseconds, compared with a low of 7 milliseconds in Da Nang. Even so, jitter stayed below the 30-millisecond threshold Microsoft Teams classifies as poor in all 13 destinations, meaning video calls were not affected. Ookla noted that jitter rose year-over-year in 11 of the 13 destinations, suggesting connection stability is slipping even where speeds are improving.

Beyond mobile performance, Ookla's data pointed to wider gaps elsewhere in the region. 5G availability increased in all 13 destinations but ranged widely, from 83.8 percent in Phuket to 40.0 percent in Penang, Malaysia. The share of 5G samples meeting a 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload threshold actually fell in seven of the 13 destinations over the same period.

Fixed broadband speeds showed the widest spread of any category, from 447.75 Mbps in Singapore to 60.33 Mbps in Jakarta, Indonesia. Ookla said reliability varied even more than those medians suggest, citing Chiang Mai, Thailand, where a 258.50 Mbps median download speed was paired with only 65.7 percent of fixed samples clearing the 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload threshold.

WiFi standards also varied sharply across the region. Singapore led with 34.4 percent of its reported WiFi connections running on WiFi 7, more than seven times the share of the next-highest ASEAN destination, while older WiFi 4 still accounted for 42.7 percent of connections in Jakarta and 41.9 percent in Bali, Indonesia.

The Speedtest Intelligence data did not provide comparable 5G availability, fixed broadband, or WiFi standard figures specifically for Metro Manila or Cebu.

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