Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV called for an investigation into the slow and expensive Internet service in the country.

The Senate should investigate why consumers are paying "steep" prices for "poor" Internet connectivity in the country, Aquino said Tuesday.

Aquino made the move after getting reports that the Philippines is lagging behind its Southeast Asian neighbors in terms of providing faster Internet connection. The reports cited an infographic from ASEAN DNA, which claimed that the Philippines (3.6 megabytes per second) lags behind Laos (4.0 Mbps), Indonesia (4.1 Mbps), Myanmar and Brunei (4.9 Mbps), Malaysia (5.5 Mbps) and Cambodia (5.7 Mbps).

The senator pointed out that on the average, local consumers spend around P1,000 a month for Internet service with speeds of up to two megabytes per second (MBPS) or about P2,000 for up to five MBPS.

But in Singapore, Aquino said the largest telecommunications company offers 15 Mbps of Internet speed for 36.90 Singapore dollars or around P1,312 a month. In Thailand, 799 baht or P1,100 could give consumers 12 Mbps of connection.

"This is expensive compared to Singapore and Thailand where we can find some of the fastest Internet connections in the world," Aquino said.

Aquino will file a Senate resolution next month to formalize his proposal, his office said.

A Senate investigation, he said, would also look into ways on how to improve the country’s poor Internet connection, which is crucial to the country’s economic growth.

“We have to find ways to improve the system and fast, especially with the ASEAN Economic Integration happenig a year from now,” Aquino said.

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