13.4% jump in phone WiFi use in Philippines in first week of lockdown – OpenSignal

MANILA, Philippines – The coronavirus pandemic is prompting more people to go online on their phones and likely from their homes, mobile analytics company OpenSignal said in an analysis released on Monday, March 30.

According to the report, OpenSignal noticed a “large week-on-week jump in Time on Wifi in the Philippines” on the third week of March, beginning March 16. This was around the time Luzon was placed under enhanced community quarantine, essentially locking down Luzon to help lessen the spread of the coronavirus.

The figure rose 7.5 percentage points from 55.8% to 63.3% during the period, which represents a week-over-week increase of 13.4%. 

OpenSignal reported this was the largest week-on-week increase observed across all the Asian countries it was tracking. Comparatively, the only observed higher increases were in Peru and Spain, at  20.4% and 16.8%, respectively.

OpenSignal also gave details on the average amount of time spent by users on smartphones connected to Wi-Fi in a host of other countries. 

Due to restrictions on mobility in many countries, more people were spending time connected to Wi-FI on their smartphones.

Notably though, in South Korea  time on Wi-Fi declined, which OpenSignal said likely reflected “reduced consumers’ concern at least for now.” (READ: Lessons from South Korea: Transparency, rapid testing, no lockdowns)

OpenSignal’s report can be accessed here. – Rappler.com